New Delhi [India], February 6 : BJP on Thursday strongly criticized Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav over his remarks declaring that the Election Commission was "dead" and accused the Opposition of repeatedly attacking constitutional institutions whenever they face electoral defeats.
Speaking to ANI, BJP MP Sambit Patra said, "As soon as the Parliament session started, the Samajwadi Party broke all decorum and presented a funeral shroud for the Election Commission in front of the Speaker... Such a misdeed had never happened in the parliamentary proceedings of India till now. The Election Commission is a constitutional institution and calling it dead and presenting a funeral shroud for it is a blow to democracy. The BJP demands that the stand of other opposition parties should be clear and the Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav should apologize for this misdeed in Parliament."
Earlier, Akhilesh Yadav citing electoral misconduct on the part of the BJP declared the Election Commission "dead".
Ahead of stepping into Parliament, Yadav told ANI, "This is the manner in which BJP contests elections. The Election Commission is dead. We will have to gift them white cloth."
BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal said, "This is nothing new. We have seen the manner in which Opposition parties attack the Constitutional institutions. Whenever they lose elections, they attack Constitutional institutions. The more Akhilesh Yadav's statement is condemned, the less it is. This is no way for a political party to use such words for Constitutional institutions..."
The Samajwadi party chief had on Wednesday, claimed that the police were checking the ID cards of voters in Milkipur. In a post on X, Yadav demanded action from the Election Commission to remove people involved in this.
"The Election Commission should immediately take cognizance of the pictures related to this news that Ayodhya police is checking the ID cards of voters in Milkipur, in which senior police officers are also involved. This is a democratic crime of indirectly influencing voting by creating fear among voters. Such people should be removed immediately and punitive action should be taken," he said.
However, Ayodhya Police responded to Samajwadi Party Chief's allegation and said that the identity cards of booth agents were being checked, not of voters. It also asked the former CM to "not make false statements".
In a post on social media website X, Ayodhya police said that the police were checking the ID of a booth agent of a candidate, not of voters.
"The above photo is of the booth agent's identity card, the person seen in the photo is a booth agent of a candidate which has been verified by seeing his identity card. Please do not make misleading tweets," they said.