UP admn working to make BJP win Gorakhpur LS bypoll, alleges SP

Shahira Naim 

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, March 14

SP leader Naresh Uttam Patel on Wednesday accused the Uttar Pradesh district administration of working towards making the BJP candidate win the Lok Sabha bypoll seat in Gorakhpur.

The leader has complained to the State Chief Election Officer alleging that the people and media were removed from the counting center in Gorakhpur.

Later, the DM, however, briefed the media after reportedly being pulled up by the Chief Election officer of Gorakhpur.

The SP candidates are leading from both Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seats. 

The party workers of both the SP and the BSP raised a new slogan ‘bua-bhatija zindabaad' in Phulpur. 

Also, the trends had an echo in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, when the Leader of the Opposition, Ram Gobind Chaudhary, pointed out to the Chair that mediapersons were being barred from entering the counting centre in Gorakhpur, and described it as "murder of democracy".

Ten nominees are in the fray from Gorakhpur, while 22 candidates are contested from Phulpur.

The bypolls were necessitated after Adityanath and his Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats, following their election to the state legislative council.

Gorakhpur is significant for the BJP with Adityanath representing the seat in the Lok Sabha five times. Before him, his mentor Yogi Avaidyanath was MP from the seat.

Phulpur, once represented by the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, witnessed a saffron surge in the 2014 Lok Sabha election when Maurya won the seat. With inputs from agencies