New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday slammed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders for their alleged "misdeeds" during the Milkipur by-election and once again asked them to take a holy dip at the ongoing Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj. Yadav also accused the BJP of promising high-level postings to officials for "favouring" BJP in the polls. "All BJP leaders need to go and take another holy dip (at the Maha Kumbh Mela) due to the kind of cheating they did... Samajwadi Party raised numerous complaints with the Election Commission. The Presiding Officer and Police Officers were promised high-level postings. You will get such postings only if you serve the BJP and do injustice to others," said Akhilesh Yadav. Earlier, Yadav had stated that this was the manner in which the BJP contests elections and called the Election Commission "dead." "This is the manner in which BJP contests elections. The Election Commission is dead. We will have to gift them white cloth," Akhilesh said. However, the BJP strongly criticised Yadav over his remarks declaring that the Election Commission was "dead" and accused the Opposition of repeatedly attacking constitutional institutions whenever they face electoral defeats. BJP MP Sambit Patra said, "As soon as the Parliament session started, the Samajwadi Party broke all decorum and presented a funeral shroud for the Election Commission in front of the Speaker... Such a misdeed had never happened in the parliamentary proceedings of India till now. The Election Commission is a constitutional institution and calling it dead and presenting a funeral shroud for it is a blow to democracy. The BJP demands that the stand of other opposition parties should be clear and the Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav should apologize for this misdeed in Parliament." The Milkipur assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh recorded a turnout of 57.13 per cent in the by-elections concluded on Wednesday. The by-election was necessitated after Samajwadi Party MP Awadhesh Prasad vacated the seat after winning the Lok Sabha election from Faizabad (Ayodhya) held last year.
