'Supreme Court should take cognizance of West Bengal poll process': Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: Questioning the fairness of the West Bengal Assembly polls, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday demanded that the Supreme Court take immediate cognisance of the poll process and that the video recording of vote counting be made available to the people.

"When court proceedings have gone live, why can't vote counting go live?" Yadav said while addressing a press conference here.

"Why is CCTV not live? Why are they so afraid of it? Our demand is that the Supreme Court should immediately take cognisance of the West Bengal polls and put the video of the counting in front of the people of the country," he said.

Referring to alleged irregularities, Yadav cited some elections and bypolls in Uttar Pradesh in recent years as an example and claimed there were discrepancies during the counting process.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister alleged that the developments seen in West Bengal could be replicated on a larger scale in Uttar Pradesh, where assembly elections are due next year.

"What has been experienced in Bengal, they will do even on a bigger scale in Uttar Pradesh. Multi-layered election mafia will work together, do more research and operate in Uttar Pradesh (in 2027 polls)," he alleged.

"These people have done what they did in West Bengal and the way they influenced the elections and changed the atmosphere -- they have now been exposed," Yadav said.

His remarks come after the BJP secured a thumping majority in West Bengal, defeating the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee. Yadav had extended support to Banerjee and her party during the elections.

Responding to a question on whether he would meet Banerjee, Yadav said he would visit West Bengal.

"I will go to West Bengal," he said.