Is Election Commission working under any pressure: Akhilesh Yadav on Arun Goel's resignation

Lucknow: A day after Arun Goel resigned as election commissioner, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday asked whether the Election Commission is working under pressure.

"Just before the elections, is there anyone's pressure on the Election Commission which is a constitutional body?" Yadav told reporters here when asked about Goel's resignation.

He also said that such a thing has happened several times in the BJP rule, when officials have had to leave their job due to pressure.

"The resignation (of Arun Goel) raises questions that whose pressure is there on the Election Commission," the former chief minister said.

Goel, who resigned on Saturday, has not given any reason for his decision. His tenure was till December 5, 2027.

On inauguration of projects by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Azamgarh earlier in the day, Yadav said, "This is just a show. Elections are near so they (BJP) have to show that they have worked. And that too telling someone else's work their own."

"Azamgarh airport was built by 'Netaji' (SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav), it has been inaugurated today. Moradabad airport was also built by Netaji and Samajwadi Party, it has been inaugurated now. Will this government inaugurate any work of its own?," he asked.

"There is a double-engine government, but airports are not being built. Even where airports have been built, airplanes are not landing there. An airstrip was built in Rasulabad, and today there are trees growing on the entire airstrip," he said.

The SP chief also attacked the BJP government over the issue of paper leaks of recruitment exams, saying the government is "deliberately" leaking papers so that it did not have to give employment to the youth.

"This time teachers and unemployed youths will oust the BJP government," he claimed.

When asked about the meeting with a Congress delegation, Yadav said, "This meeting was held to formulate a strategy on how to fight with the BJP. In the coming polls, 'samvidhan rakshak' (savers of the Constitution) will be on one side and 'samvidhan bakshak' (destroyers of the Constitution) will be on the other." On being asked about TMC declaring all his candidates in West Bengal, Yadav said he was not aware of it.

He said that the SP will soon declare candidates on the remaining seats in which it has to contest.

The SP and the Congress -- the two I.N.D.I.A. bloc members -- are fighting the parliamentary polls in alliance in Uttar Pradesh.