"After i resigned, it was BJP leader's moral duty to take back his writ": SP's Awadhesh Prasad on Milkipur bypoll

New Delhi [India], October 16 : After the Election Commission kept the polling for Milkipur seat in Ayodhya in abeyance due to pending of an election petition, Samajwadi Party MP Awadhesh Prasad said on Wednesday that the seat has become very important as it is connected to Akhilesh Yadav and Ayodhya.
Prasad told ANI that when he resigned from the seat after becoming the MP, it was the moral duty of the BJP member to take back his writ.
"After the Milkipur seat fell vacant, the writ filed by a BJP member against me became infructuous. After the seat fell vacant and I had resigned, it was his (the BJP member) moral duty to take back his petition. This seat has become very important as it is connected to Akhilesh Yadav and Ayodhya. The public is determined to make Ajeet Prasad win from the constituency," the SP MP said.
However, BJP MLA Baba Gorakhnath, who filed a petition against Samajwadi Party MP Awadhesh Prasad told ANI that they have decided to withdraw their petition as they want elections to be held on Milkipur seat.
He said, "When anyone contests Vidhan Sabha elections, all of their documents are notarized. The lawyer from which he (Awadhesh Singh) got the notary, his licence had expired 6 years ago. So we filed a case. He resigned as he was elected as an MP... Yesterday, we were upset with the decision of the Election Commission so we decided to withdraw the petition... We want the elections. We will withdraw our petition so that the elections can take place."
His advocate, Rudra Vikram Singh mentioned that they had filed an election petition against Awadhesh Singh in 2022 for the "fraud" he had committed regarding the paperwork and affidavit.
"The whole affidavit submitted by him was fake because the person who did the notary did not have the right or licence for it... The hearing was going on in the High Court... But later he (Awadhesh Singh) resigned as the MLA because he was chosen as an MP... Now that the Election Commission has said that the election would be delayed because of the petition, we have decided to withdraw it as we don't want the people of Milkipur to be deprived of their right to choose their MLA," the advocate said.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had announced during a press conference on Tuesday that there are 10 vacant assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, but bypolls were only announced for nine seats. Kumar said election was not announced for Milkipur seat in Ayodhya as an election petition is pending.
The bypolls are spread over 15 states - Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.