BJP conspires to manipulate votes through SIR in Bihar: Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav (Courtesy: PTI photo)

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of conspiring to manipulate votes through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.

Yadav is in Jharkhand to pay tribute to former chief minister Shibu Soren, who died on August 4, at his ancestral village Nemra in Ramgarh district.

"The BJP’s biggest job is to conspire and plot when they lack answers to basic questions. When they realised the people of Bihar are against them, they conspired to manipulate votes on a large scale through SIR," Yadav told reporters after arriving at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport.

He said that if the SIR was genuinely needed, it could have been conducted a year earlier.

The assembly elections in Bihar are due this year.

"The BJP used to seize people’s rights earlier. Now they are manipulating votes. They also want to snatch away the right to vote," Yadav alleged.

The SP chief also wondered why the EC sought an affidavit from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to support his allegation of "vote theft".

Yadav said, "About two years ago, the Samajwadi Party reported that names of 18,000 voters were deleted in 2019 (Lok Sabha polls). When the 2022 (UP assembly) elections took place, the names of those voters remained deleted. We provided evidence with an affidavit and lodged a complaint, but no action has been taken against any official till date.

Yadav left for Nemra village by car to pay homage to Shibu Soren, the co-founder of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

"Shibu Soren was a leader deeply connected to ‘Jal, Jungle, Jamin’ (water, forest, and land). He dedicated his entire life to the upliftment of tribal, oppressed, and deprived communities," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

Yadav added that he would meet Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

"Hemant Soren ji has inherited not only Shibu Soren’s ideology but also the experience of his long and struggling life. I hope Hemant Soren will carry forward his legacy and work to make the citizens of this state prosperous," the SP president added.