UP Election 2022: Samajwadi Party demands election office to cancel Rampur bypoll, hold election again

SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav in his letter accused the state administration of doing large-scale rigging during voting in the bypoll, the release said.

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Uttar Pradesh: Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav has written a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner demanding that the bypoll in Rampur assembly constituency be cancelled and held again, a party release issued here on Wednesday said. In his letter to CEO Rajeev Kumar, Yadav accused the state administration of doing large-scale rigging during voting in the bypoll, the release said. He said that the voters were prevented from exercising their franchise and were beaten up by police. The SP national general secretary also attached photographs of "police brutality" as evidence in his letter, the release said.

This time the percentage of voting in Rampur has been much less as compared to the previous elections, which warrants cancelling of previous poll and holding of a re-election, the leader contended in his letter. The SP alleged that the government used its police powers to prevent voters from a particular religion from exercising their franchise.

In a press conference at the party's state headquarters held earlier in the day, SP Chief Whip in the state assembly, Manoj Pandey said, "We appeal to all the constitutional institutions including the Election Commission to investigate the excesses (of power) during the Rampur by-election by taking suo motu cognizance, because this matter is not about any person, but about the protection of democracy."

Rampur assembly seat was vacated due to disqualification of Azam Khan after he was sentenced to three years in a hate speech case. In the bypoll on Monday, a meagre 33.94 per cent of the total eligible electorate cast its ballot.

In the Lok Sabha bypoll held in June on the same seat, 41 per cent polling was recorded, while in the 2022 assembly poll, it was 56.35 per cent. Azam Khan's family has also accused the police of not allowing Muslim voters to leave their homes and of using force against those came out to cast their votes.