Akhilesh claims SIR weeding of votes has backfired, sparked BJP infight

Lucknow, Dec 27 (PTI) Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday claimed that the removal of 2.89 crore voters' names in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign has sparked an infight within the ruling BJP.

Yadav's remark came in the wake of a meeting of BJP MLAs from the Brahman community in Lucknow.    "While the apparent reason for the infighting within the Uttar Pradesh BJP may be a 'rebel meeting,' the real reason is that news has already spread among BJP MLAs that 2.89 crore voters' names have been removed in the SIR," he said in a statement.   On December 23, BJP MLAs from the Brahmin community met at the Lucknow residence of party MLA from Kushinagar district, P N Pathak.  Around 40 MLAs from Purvanchal and Bundelkhand participated in this meeting, which stoked types of speculations.   "According to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, who has 'one year left' in his term, approximately 85-90 per cent of his own voters have been removed from the list. The political mathematical analysis of this is: if we consider only 85 per cent of 28,900,000, this figure would be approximately 24,565,000.   "Now, if this figure is divided by the total 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh, this figure will come to approximately 61,000 votes per seat," Yadav said.

The former chief minister claimed that the cutting would lead to 61,000 fewer votes to the BJP proportionally on every seat in Uttar Pradesh.  "In such a situation, how will they form a government? They won't even be able to cross the double-digit mark," he said.   "That is why the internal conflict is now manifesting itself in the form of mutual accusations, counter-accusations, and open notices," he added.   Pankaj Chaudhary, the president of the BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit, warned the party's members not to fall prey to any kind of "negative politics" in a statement on Thursday.  Meanwhile, Yadav claimed that its MLAs were not listening to the BJP and the dissent forced the party to conduct a survey to evaluate their work before the elections.

"This is the fundamental reason why they have all come together to defend themselves. In the massive corruption of a select few in the BJP, these people, who have reached the level of rebellion due to their dissatisfaction, have received nothing but the stain of infamy. The BJP's own actions have led to its downfall," he added. PTI CDN   VN VN