Election Commission might be making strategy to stop Samajwadis in UP, says Akhilesh

'Members of the Samajwadi Party (SP) will go to villages with the slogan of '80 Harao, Loktantra Bachao (defeat 80, save democracy)'. This government has betrayed farmers,' Yadav said.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday suggested that the Election Commission might be strategising to defeat his party.

The SP leader made the remark when asked by reporters to comment on the current visit of an Election Commission (EC) delegation to Lucknow to assess poll preparedness.

"Ho sakta hai ki ranniti bana rahein ho ki Samajwadion ko kaise rokein (Maybe they are making a strategy on how to stop the Samajwadis)," he said.

'The commission might be making this strategy, who knows,' Yadav added.

The SP chief also hit out at the BJP, saying it betrayed farmers and pushed the future of youngsters into darkness.

'Members of the Samajwadi Party (SP) will go to villages with the slogan of '80 Harao, Loktantra Bachao (defeat 80, save democracy)'. This government has betrayed farmers,' Yadav told media persons at the party headquarters here.

'They came to power with the promise of doubling farmers' income. But the income of farmers has not risen... they (BJP) have pushed the future of the youths into darkness,' he added.

Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats, the highest for any state in the country.

'Farmers are angry and waiting for the elections because their earnings have not increased... youngsters are angry because question papers of exams they worked hard for were leaked,' Yadav said.

He was referring to the Uttar Pradesh government recently cancelling the recruitment exam for police constables held last month following widespread complaints of paper leaks.

'Today, very few people are happy... more are sad and those who are sad are with the PDA (backwards, Dalits and minorities), with us,' the SP leader said.

Referring to an incident connected to the 2022 Assembly elections, Yadav said, 'We had identified 10 families in Kannauj who were alive but their votes were cancelled. When we complained about it, action was taken against junior officials. The district magistrate should have been suspended.' 'When we complained about deleted votes, the Election Commission gave us a notice on which we gave the details of 18,000 such votes. Will the Election Commission suspend the Returning Officer over it,' he asked.