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Journalism of Courage
BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday warned Muslims of Uttar Pradesh, saying they need to carefully think over the results of the bypolls to Mainpuri Lok Sabha and Rampur Assembly seats in the state, so that they can be saved from being “cheated” in future elections. She referred to the low polling in Rampur as a “planned one”, and wondered whether the victory of the Samajwadi Party in Mainpuri and its loss for the first time in Azam Khan’s stronghold of Rampur, was the result of connivance between the SP and the BJP.
BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary refuted Mayawati’s claims and said that his party contests elections on its ideology and the work done by PM Modi and CM Yogi, and that party was in the process of scrutinising its results.
In a tweet on Sunday, the BSP supremo said while there was a lot of discussion about the victory of the SP in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha by-election, everyone seemed to agree that the SP’s first ever loss in Rampur, the stronghold of Azam Khan, was due to “planned low voting”. She also wondered whether it was the result of internal collusion between the SP and the BJP.
Warning the Muslim community, she further wrote, “Iss bare mein khas kar Muslim samaj ko kafi chintan karne wah samajhne ki bhi jaroorat hai taki age hone wale chunavon mein dhokha khane se bacha ja sake (Everyone, especially Muslims, need to reflect upon and understand what happened, so that they don’t get cheated in forthcoming elections).”
She also said there are doubts about the BJP’s defeat in the Khatauli Assembly seat, which should be another matter to reflect upon.
The BSP, which won just 1 seat in the recent Assembly elections, has been trying to consolidate Muslim votes in its favour, and the tweets are being seen as part of the same effort. Recently, it inducted popular Western UP Muslim leader Imran Masood and gave him significant responsibilities.
Refuting Mayawati’s allegations, the BJP’s Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, who was holding a meeting with party office-bearers in Lucknow for forthcoming local body polls in the state, said, “If we had some understanding or alliance with the SP, why did we lose Mainpuri and Khatauli? We do not have any milli bhagat (collusion).”
BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla said the political party that did not contest the election does not have a moral right to comment on the outcome. He said that having faced atrocities at the hands of Azam Khan, the Rampur public showed trust in the BJP’s leaders.
The SP too reacted to Mayawati’s statement. SP leader Manoj Pandey said, “It’s unfortunate that BSP chief Mayawati has today remembered the elections. Where was she when atrocities by the administration were at their peak during the polls? We had been constantly raising the issue of people being denied voting and complaining to the Election Commission. Where was she then? Azam Khan is part of the SP. Allegations should not be made on the basis of imagination.”
The BJP candidate from Rampur, Akash Saxena, said it is wrong to say that voting has been extremely low during this election, adding that polling had been low during the recent Rampur Lok Sabha bypolls too.
By-elections were held recently for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant following the death of SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav. The seat was won by Dimple Yadav, the daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav and wife of the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. She defeated Raghuraj Singh Shakya of the BJP by a margin of over 2.8 lakh votes. In the Rampur Assembly seat, the BJP’s Akash Saxena defeated Asim Raza of the SP by a margin of over 34,000 votes.
The polling in these seats, along with that for the Khatauli Assembly seat, had taken place on December 5. Since then, the SP has been raising the question of the low (33.94 per cent) voting in Rampur, alleging that the BJP won by preventing their voters from casting their votes.
