Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday accused the BJP of attempting to hold on to power through manipulation of electoral rolls and election-related irregularities and called the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls a decisive battle to protect democracy and voting rights.Addressing party leaders, workers and supporters at the party’s state headquarters, the former UP CM alleged that the ruling party was trying to deprive people of their voting rights and relying on electoral malpractice rather than public support to win elections.Calling the BJP an enemy of democracy, he urged party workers to closely monitor voter lists and ensure that no eligible voter was removed from the electoral rolls.“Democracy could survive only when every citizen’s right to vote was protected. Party workers must regularly verify their own voter details as well as those of residents in their localities,” he said.He said the SP and its PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) alliance would have to work with commitment and unity to defeat the BJP in the 2027 Assembly elections.Akhilesh also accused the BJP of misusing power to target opposition leaders and tarnish the image of the Samajwadi Party and the PDA bloc through baseless allegations.Referring to concerns over voter-list management, he reiterated the SP’s demand for linking Aadhaar with electoral rolls.“Aadhaar-based verification could help prevent duplication, check irregularities and the deletion of genuine voters from the rolls, thereby strengthening electoral transparency,” he said.The SP chief also touched upon his party’s welfare agenda, promising that if voted to power, it would provide completely free treatment to poor patients in govt hospitals and medical colleges. He said public healthcare institutions would be upgraded and patients would not require any special card to access treatment.Akhilesh sends chaadar for Deva Sharif UrsAkhilesh on Wednesday offered a chaadar for the annual Urs at the revered shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Haji Waris Ali Shah in Deva Sharif, Barabanki. The chaadar will be presented at the shrine with prayers for peace, prosperity, communal harmony and the development of Uttar Pradesh.
