The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on September 4 said it would sit out the Ghosi Assembly byelection scheduled on September 5 and will ask its supporters to vote for the None of the Above (NOTA) option as both the main contesting parties are contrary to the ideas and policies of the BSP.
“Our party is not involved in the byelection. As a principle, the BSP refrain from contesting bypolls. We have also not extended support to any of the candidates. In such a scenario the BSP supporters would either stay away from polling or press None of the Above [NOTA],” said Vishwanath Pal, the party’s State president.
The BSP which gets its mass support from the Dalit voter base polled 54,248 votes in 2022 Assembly election in Ghosi, with its candidate Vasim Ekbal alias Chunnu making the battle a three-cornered contest. The Dalit electorate which is in sizeable numbers in Ghosi are considered crucial to decide the Assembly byelection outcome, which is the first electoral battle in the State since the formation of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The BJP candidate Dara Singh Chauhan and the Samajwadi Party (SP) nominee Sudhakar Singh are locked in a direct contest. Mr. Chauhan, an Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader resigned as the SP MLA from the seat on July 15 necessitating the byelection.
In another development related to Ghosi byelection SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav on Monday accused the State government Ministers as well as government officials of threatening voters. Mr. Yadav, along with 10 party legislators, met the Inspector-General (IG) of Police, Azamgarh Range, Akhilesh Kumar to demand action against the officials.
“In Azamgarh to Mau, State government Ministers are staying and influencing elections. Muslims are being threatened and money is used,” alleged Mr. Yadav. Earlier, both the BJP and the SP wrote letters to the Chief State Election Commissioner accusing each other of trying to manipulate the byelection.
Voting in the byelection will be held on September 5 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the counting of votes will be held on September 8.
