Lucknow: In the election for 36 members of Uttar Pradesh state legislative council, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accused of using state machinery in its favour on the tunes of panchayat polls. In the panchayat polls held last year the ruling BJP had grabbed the post of most Zila Panchayat chiefs despite not having required number of elected representatives.
In the council polls at several places the candidates of SP were stopped from filing nominations and roughed up. During the scrutiny on Tuesday, the nomination papers of SP candidates were rejected in many districts. At present the process of election for 36 legislative council members in UP under the local bodies quota is going on. While Monday was the last day for filing of nomination, the polling would be held on April 9 while counting is to be done on April 12. The elected representatives of village, block, zila panchayats as well as local bodies in the cities vote for these elections.
During the scrutiny of nominations papers on Tuesday, SP leader and candidate from Etah-Mainpuri-Mathura seat, Udayveer Singh was roughed up by BJP workers and chased. Till now, two candidates of BJP have become legislative council members unopposed from Etah and Mathura seats. The nomination papers of SP candidates from Etah-Mainpuri-Mathura Rakesh Yadav and Udayveer Singh was rejected on Tuesday. This has paved way for the unopposed election of BJP candidates Ashish Yadav and Om Prakash Singh.
Similar incident happened in Bulandshahar where the nomination of SP-RLD candidate Sunita Sharma was rejected on technical grounds making for the unopposed election of BJP candidate Narendra Bhati. It may be mentioned that Bhati had won 2016 council polls as SP candidate from the same seat but had switched loyalties before 2022 assembly polls. The agitated lot of SP-RLD workers gheroed district collectorate opposing the rejection of nomination of their candidate. In Lakhimpur district too, the nomination of SP candidate Anurag Patel was rejected on technical grounds.
Earlier on Monday, the SP candidate Udayveer Singh was thrashed by a group of BJP supporters at the gate of Etah district collectorate while he was going to file nominations. Later on Tuesday too, BJP workers while going for the scrutiny of nomination papers beat him at the same place.
Meanwhile, a delegation of SP leaders approached election commission on Tuesday and accused the ruling BJP of using state machinery to manipulate council elections. The SP delegation cited the incidents of Mainpuri-Etah seat where its candidate was manhandled. The SP leaders said that council polls are not being conducted in free and fair manner.
