Ruckus in UP Assembly over Opposition leader remark

New Delhi: As the Samajwadi Party (SP) staged an upset by wresting Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s pocketborough Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat, the development stirred a controversy when the Leader of the Opposition Ram Gobind Chaudhary pointed out in the state Assembly that mediapersons were barred from entering the counting centres in Gorakhpur, and described it as “murder of democracy”.

In fact, there were allegations that Gorakhpur district magistrate (DM) Rajeev Rautela reportedly stopped sharing results trends after the initial rounds.

Mr Rautela, however later said that there was no such bar on the entry of media at counting centres. Amid uproarious scenes created by a jubilant SP members in the state assembly, Speaker Hriday Narayan Dixit had to adjourn the House briefly. SP MPs in Lok Sabha also tried raising the issue in the Lower House which witness uproarious scenes as Union Budget was passed without discussion there through voice vote amid protests from TDP and AIADMK over various issues. SP also won the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat.

The bypolls in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur were necessitated after Adityanath and his deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats respectively, following their election to the state legislative council.

Gorakhpur is significant for the BJP with Adityanath representing the seat in the Lok Sabha five times. Before him, his mentor Yogi Avaidyanath was MP from the seat.

Phulpur, once represented by the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, witnessed a saffron surge in the 2014 Lok Sabha election when Maurya won the seat.