Rampur, Mar 26 (PTI) The Samajwadi Party's Rampur president on Tuesday said that the district unit had wanted SP president Akhilesh Yadav to contest the Lok Sabha elections from this constituency and is now inclined to boycott it.
A statement that bears the names of district unit president Ajay Sagar and jailed leader Azam Khan accused the ruling BJP of poll violations and excesses against SP leaders.
They had asked Akhilesh Yadav to contest from Rampur because of these "special circumstances" in the constituency, the letter said indirectly indicating that he turned down the request.
"Under this atmosphere and circumstances, we are boycotting the present elections," it said in Hindi. However, it added that only the party chief can take a decision on this matter.
The statement comes days after Akhilesh Yadav met Azam Khan in the Sitapur Jail and reportedly discussed the upcoming polls.
"But when the election has become no election and the officials are working to ensure the defeat of Khan's party anyhow by blatantly violating the poll panel guidelines there is no point to fight the election and hence we have decided to boycott the upcoming polls," the letter said.
Though the BJP has repeated Ghanshyam Lodhi from the Rampur seat, the main opposition SP which is contesting the polls in alliance with the Congress is yet to name its nominee.
After Khan's disqualification following his conviction in separate cases against him and his legislator son Abdullah Azam, the BJP had won the Rampur parliamentary seat in the by-poll and subsequently the Suar assembly seat of his MLA son later.
Khan was convicted along with three others in a case of a forced demolition of a house in 2016 in the Dungarpur area.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)