Ghaziabad: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said deferring of bypolls by a week to Nov 20 betrayed BJP's fears of defeat in UP, his comments coming at a meeting of the party's booth workers in Ghaziabad.
Election Commission on Monday rescheduled the bypolls, which were originally scheduled for Nov 13, "due to various festivities", citing requests from various political parties. Akhilesh, however, alleged BJP would use the additional days for "special preparations" and ensure voters "holding divergent viewpoints do not vote".
"Fear of a defeat made them change the date. The message that UP will send by defeating them, they feared it will jeopardise their chances in Maharashtra as well," the former CM said. "BJP is losing this election, so they are delaying it," he added. Later, asked what he meant by ‘khaas tayyari' (special preparation), Akhilesh said, "They must be identifying booths."