UP bypolls: BJP candidate tells voters to give him victory or let him die; rivals call out 'desperate tactics'

'Ya ta abki jitay da, ya ta tikhti par litay da' (either make me victorious or make me lie on death bed), Nishad, BJP candidate from Katehri seat, has been telling the voters in his election meetings using Bhojpuri words. Posters carrying these words also appeared in several parts of the constituency.

Lucknow: A BJP candidate in the forthcoming assembly by-polls in Uttar Pradesh has, in what his rivals say 'desperate tactics', has asked the electorate of his constituency to choose between his victory and death.

Dharmaraj Nishad, the BJP candidate from Katehri assembly seat in the state's Ambedkar Nagar district, has been telling the electorate to either grant him an electoral triumph in the upcoming by-polls or allow him to die.

''Ya ta abki jitay da, ya ta tikhti par litay da'' (either make me victorious or make me lie on death bed), Nishad has been telling the voters in his election meetings using Bhojpuri words. Posters carrying these words also appeared in several parts of the constituency.

As the videos of the saffron party nominee offering the two choices to the voters went viral on social media triggering sharp criticism from the rival candidates, the BJP leadership sought to distance itself from the poster and the remarks.

Later, apparently under pressure from the leadersh, Nishad said that he never made those remarks and that it was a 'conspiracy' hatched by his opponents. ''My opponents may have put up the poster....I am confident of my victory,'' Nishad said.

BJP district unit president Trayambak Tewari said that he had spoken to the party nominee and his son and that they had categorically denied having put up such posters.

Samajawadi Party (SP) district unit president Jang Bahadur Yadav, however, said that it showed that the BJP was on a ''sticky wicket'' . ''It shows his (Nishad) desperation'', Yadav said.

By-polls would be held in nine assembly seats in UP on November 20.