Mayawati wonders if there’s collusion between BJP and SP after saffron social gathering’s win in Rampur bypoll

By PTI

LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday attributed the defeat of the Samajwadi Party within the latest Rampur bypoll to “planned low voting”, questioning whether or not there was a collusion between the SP and the BJP.

The BJP for the primary time gained from SP chief Azam Khan’s bastion Rampur, which he represented earlier than he was disqualified after his conviction in a hate speech case.

In a tweet in Hindi, Mayawati stated, “The SP won the bypolls held on Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, but it lost for the first time on the seat held by Azam Khan in the assembly by-election due to planned low voting.”

“Is it not a result of the internal collusion between the BJP and the SP?” In one other tweet, she stated, “The Muslim group must suppose and perceive this in order that within the upcoming elections, it will probably save itself from getting cheated.

“There is a lot of suspicion over the defeat of the BJP in the Khatauli assembly bypolls, and this is also a matter to think about.”

Reacting to her assertion, BJP’s newly elected MLA from Rampur Akash Saxena stated, “In the Lok Sabha bypolls held in Rampur, the voting percentage was 31.5 per cent, and in the recent assembly by-elections held in Rampur, the voting percentage was 35.So, it is wrong to say that there has been a low voter turnout in the by-election. The polling percentage (in the assembly bypolls) has increased by 3.5 points compared to the Lok Sabha bypolls.”

UP BJP spokesperson Hero Bajpai rebutted the tweets of the BSP chief and instructed PTI, “This is simply a figment of her imagination. She is saying all this since the BSP is not contesting the elections, nor it is entering the poll fray. And, I feel that in the upcoming urban local bodies elections and in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, if she continues to watch the match from outside the field, then she will continue to make such baseless remarks.”

Samajwadi Party MLC Ashutosh Sinha instructed PTI, “The BSP is working as a B-team of the BJP, and in every election, it makes an effort to transfer its vote to the BJP. However, this did not materialise in these bypolls, and the people rejected the BSP after knowing about its intention.”

In the recently-concluded by-elections, the Samajwadi Party retained the high-profile Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, whereas the BJP wrested the Rampur Sadar meeting seat from it.

The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, nevertheless, misplaced Khatauli to Samajwadi Party ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

Dimple Yadav, the spouse of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, defeated her nearest rival and BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya by 2,88,461 votes in Mainpuri, a pocket borough of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s household.

The win supplied some solace to Akhilesh Yadav after the defeat within the Uttar Pradesh meeting elections early this yr and the lack of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats to the BJP within the bypolls in June.

Samajwadi Party’s ally Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Madan Bhaiya defeated his BJP rival Rajkumari Saini by a margin of over 22,000 votes in Khatauli.

Saini is the spouse of former BJP MLA Vikram Singh whose disqualification from the state meeting following his conviction in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case necessitated the by-election.

Madan Bhaiya polled 97,071 votes, whereas Saini obtained 74,996, in response to the Election Commission.

LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday attributed the defeat of the Samajwadi Party within the latest Rampur bypoll to “planned low voting”, questioning whether or not there was a collusion between the SP and the BJP.

The BJP for the primary time gained from SP chief Azam Khan’s bastion Rampur, which he represented earlier than he was disqualified after his conviction in a hate speech case.

In a tweet in Hindi, Mayawati stated, “The SP won the bypolls held on Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, but it lost for the first time on the seat held by Azam Khan in the assembly by-election due to planned low voting.”

“Is it not a result of the internal collusion between the BJP and the SP?” In one other tweet, she stated, “The Muslim group must suppose and perceive this in order that within the upcoming elections, it will probably save itself from getting cheated.

“There is a lot of suspicion over the defeat of the BJP in the Khatauli assembly bypolls, and this is also a matter to think about.”

Reacting to her assertion, BJP’s newly elected MLA from Rampur Akash Saxena stated, “In the Lok Sabha bypolls held in Rampur, the voting percentage was 31.5 per cent, and in the recent assembly by-elections held in Rampur, the voting percentage was 35.So, it is wrong to say that there has been a low voter turnout in the by-election. The polling percentage (in the assembly bypolls) has increased by 3.5 points compared to the Lok Sabha bypolls.”

UP BJP spokesperson Hero Bajpai rebutted the tweets of the BSP chief and instructed PTI, “This is simply a figment of her imagination. She is saying all this since the BSP is not contesting the elections, nor it is entering the poll fray. And, I feel that in the upcoming urban local bodies elections and in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, if she continues to watch the match from outside the field, then she will continue to make such baseless remarks.”

Samajwadi Party MLC Ashutosh Sinha instructed PTI, “The BSP is working as a B-team of the BJP, and in every election, it makes an effort to transfer its vote to the BJP. However, this did not materialise in these bypolls, and the people rejected the BSP after knowing about its intention.”

In the recently-concluded by-elections, the Samajwadi Party retained the high-profile Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, whereas the BJP wrested the Rampur Sadar meeting seat from it.

The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, nevertheless, misplaced Khatauli to Samajwadi Party ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

Dimple Yadav, the spouse of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, defeated her nearest rival and BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya by 2,88,461 votes in Mainpuri, a pocket borough of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s household.

The win supplied some solace to Akhilesh Yadav after the defeat within the Uttar Pradesh meeting elections early this yr and the lack of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats to the BJP within the bypolls in June.

Samajwadi Party’s ally Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Madan Bhaiya defeated his BJP rival Rajkumari Saini by a margin of over 22,000 votes in Khatauli.

Saini is the spouse of former BJP MLA Vikram Singh whose disqualification from the state meeting following his conviction in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case necessitated the by-election.

Madan Bhaiya polled 97,071 votes, whereas Saini obtained 74,996, in response to the Election Commission.