BJP is sabotaging UP's Lok Sabha bypoll: Shivpal Yadav

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], December 5 : A day ahead of the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Singh Yadav on Sunday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is sabotaging the Lok Sabha by-polls as drones are being used to monitor his party workers and his home.
He also claimed that the district administration and the police conducted raids on the residences of Samajwadi Party workers.
"Samajwadi Party workers are being raided by cops and many of them have been abused and forcefully arrested," he added.
"Block chief Takha Preeti Yadav's husband Dhruv Yadav alias Chini was taken to custody. When I received the information, I talked to senior officials and then they freed him," Yadav claimed while talking to the reporters on Sunday.
He termed the "action" as a "murder of democracy".
"We are being monitored by drones at our homes. Atrocities unleashed upon SP workers and this is the murder of democracy," he added.
Hitting out at the BJP, Etawa's District Panchayat President Anshul Yadav said that the party is feared to lose the by-elections.
"BJP is using the administration due to the frustration. But, the public has made up its minds in the Mainpuri elections. The administration tried to arrest Dhruv Yadav by scaling the wall. Whatever legal action is to be taken against the administration, we will also get it done. The entire Samajwadi family is with Dhruv Yadav. If anything happens to any worker of Mainpuri, the entire SP will stand with him," Anshul said.
The SP has fielded the wife of Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav from the seat, the Bharatiya Janata Party has changed all the pre-poll predictions by pitting veteran leader Raghuraj Singh Shakya here.
The counting of votes will take place on December 8, coinciding with the results of the Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.