Lucknow, (IANS): Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of cheating the people to win power in the state.
Addressing a press conference, the 44-year-old leader also alleged that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were manipulated and tampered to favour the BJP in the state assembly elections.
“I met lots of party workers and supporters, who told me that they were bewildered over the victory of BJP, as many of them had pressed the button against SP symbol,” he said, adding that people had lost faith in EVMs.
He also demanded that all future polls in the state be held through the traditional ballot papers method.
The SP also started a membership drive from Saturday. Akhilesh Yadav said the party had decided to involve all sections of the society in party work.
He also accused the state’s Yogi Adityanath government of taking credit for the work done by his government in the past.
“We worked a lot to change the power scenario in state, got many sub-stations made and installed new transformers,” he said while pointing out that the present BJP government was now taking credit for all this.
He also alleged that there was law and order failure in the state under the watch of the Chief Minister and said that only recently the BJP workers had bashed up police officials in Kannauj.
“People are being set afire alive, rapes have increased and the state government is doing nothing,” Yadav said pointing out how during the SP government even a small crime was blown out of proportions to defame it.
Akhilesh Yadav also rebutted the charges levelled by Union Power Minister Piyush Goel on Friday that Uttar Pradesh was deprived of the benefits of many central government-aided schemes, including “Power for All”, as he wanted his picture to be displayed over everything relating to the schemes.
“I had only said that if Prime Minister’s picture will be there, then the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s should also be there,” he said.