Ahead of the Assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav hit out at the ruling BJP, accusing it of using police to prevent people from voting even as the Election Commission aims to maximize voter turnout.

Addressing party workers in Ghaziabad in support of party candidate Singh Raj Jatav, the former chief minister claimed that BJP was trying to delay the bye-election as it "knows that it is losing".

"They realised that people who returned home for the festive season were ready to vote against them. That's why they postponed the bypoll.

"The BJP is anti-democratic, using police to hinder the voting process," he said, referring to the non-announcement of the bypoll for the Milkipur seat in Ayodhya.

Bypolls will be held in nine assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh on November 20. These are Katehari in Ambedkar Nagar, Karhal in Mainpuri, Meerapur in Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Majhawan in Mirzapur, Sishamau in Kanpur city, Khair in Aligarh, Phulpur in Prayagraj and Kundarki in Moradabad.

Eight of these seats fell vacant after their MLAs were elected as Lok Sabha MPs. The bypoll in the Sisamau seat is being held as Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki was convicted in a criminal case.

The Election Commission on Monday declared that bypolls on nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh have been deferred in view of several political parties fearing a low voter turnout due to festivals in the coming week.

According to the revised date, voting, earlier scheduled to take place on November 13, will now be conducted on November 20. The date for counting of votes, unchanged, will be November 23.

Recently, a Samajwadi Party delegation wrote to the chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh and alleged that the police was pressuring people to vote for the BJP in Kundarki and Katehari assembly seats and was threatening opposition party workers to leave the area on voting day.

The BJP promotes a "divide and rule" policy similar to the strategy of the British colonial rulers, Akhilesh Yadav alleged.

"The British may have left but the BJP has adopted their divisive policies," Yadav alleged while asserting that inflation and unemployment have made all sections of society frustrated with the government.

On changes in the tenure regulations of the Uttar Pradesh police chief, the SP supremo claimed the BJP amended the rules to ensure that a preferred official holds the post.

"This decision shows there is tension between Lucknow and Delhi," Yadav alleged while claiming that senior IPS officers were disappointed by the ongoing practice of appointing acting DGPs, which, he claimed, denies them fair opportunities.

On the Supreme Court's Tuesday ruling on madrassas, Yadav said, "The BJP has made many unconstitutional decisions during its tenure, and we trust that these will be overturned." In a major relief to madrassas in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the constitutional validity of the 2004 state law regulating the Muslim minority educational institutions and said a statute cannot be struck down on the grounds of secularism.

The Samajwadi Party chief noted that both the Allahabad High Court and Supreme Court have reprimanded the state government on numerous occasions for its policies.

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