Mainpuri election: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav casts his vote, alleges police restricting voters

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday cast his vote for the ongoing election at the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat at Abhinav Vidyalaya in Saifai in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah, following which he alleged police of restricting voters to cast their votes.

"I don't know on whose orders the administration is working from the day polling started. What briefing has been given to him? Complaints are coming continuously since morning. Police is not allowing people to cast votes," SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged while addressing a press conference after casting his vote.

Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party's Shivpal Singh Yadav also alleged that there is administrative pressure over them and their workers were also attacked. "Administrative pressure so far, our workers were attacked. I alerted them last night to not get caught by the Police and reach polling booths at 7 am and facilitate voting," Shivpal Singh Yadav alleged.

Reacting to this, SP's Mainpuri candidate Dimple Yadav alleged in a tweet that the District Magistrate of Mainpuri was not receiving the calls of SP workers. "DM Mainpuri is not receiving calls of SP workers regarding the complaint of rigging in the elections. Election Commissioner should take note of it," she tweeted in Hindi. The voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri Lok Sabha Assembly Seat was recorded at 7.08 per cent till 9 am on Monday, the Election Commission of India said.

Polling in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency was mandated following the demise of the sitting MP and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav. The party has fielded his daughter-in-law and wife of Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav. She is pitted against BJP's former MP Raghuraj Singh Shakya.

"People loved Netaji (Mulayam Yadav). They will make Dimple win by a huge margin," Shivpal Singh Yadav asserted. Samajwadi Party patron Late Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother Abhay Ram Yadav also cast his vote at Abhinav Vidyalaya in Saifai, Etawah and said that there is no competition with any political party.

"SP is going to win by a huge margin. There is no competition with any other political party," he said.Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders earlier in the morning thronged to cast their votes claiming that the party candidate Dimple Yadav will win with "three times more votes" than what Mulayam Singh Yadav garnered.

SP MP Ram Gopal Yadav cast his vote in Etawah's Saifai. "Dimple Yadav (party's candidate for the by-election) will win with three times more votes than what Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) used to get," he said. Ram Gopal Yadav further alleged that the BJP "goons" had come to the powerhouse of Mainpuri and pushed the SP's agents.

"In Mainpuri, they weren't allowing agents at booths 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146. We spoke to Returning Officer, I'll find out if it was later allowed. Similarly, BJP goons came to a powerhouse of Mainpuri in an inebriated state & pushed our agent out. The police and administration are of no help," Yadav alleged. "Police-admin are manipulating. EC had directed that deployment for election duties be randomised. But when polling parties arrived, around 2000 of the staff were stopped and held back as reserves as they had Yadav surname. They forget that not only Yadavs but everyone votes for SP," Yadav further alleged.

Voting for the by-elections for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh and six assembly seats in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh began today at 7 am and the polling will end at 6 pm.