"Mischievous elements trying to influence voters": SP Milkipur candidate Ajit Prasad alleges pressure on voters

Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) [India] February 5 (ANI): Samajwadi Party candidate for the Milkipur assembly by-elections, Ajit Prasad, spoke to ANI about the voting process and alleged interference by certain elements.
He claimed, "The votes are in favour of the Samajwadi Party, but some mischievous elements are trying to influence the voters. The police here are also pressurising the voters to not vote for the Samajwadi Party, but the people of Milkipur are only voting for us."
Prasad also raised concerns over his party's election agents being restricted access to polling booths, adding, "I am getting complaints that our agents are not being allowed to enter the polling booths..."
Meanwhile, Ayodhya Police responded to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's allegation that the police is checking the ID cards of voters in the Milkipur where by-polls are underway on Wednesday.
In a post on social media website X, Ayodhya police said that the police were checking the ID of a booth agent of a candidate, not of voters.
"The above photo is of the booth agent's identity card, the person seen in the photo is a booth agent of a candidate which has been verified by seeing his identity card. Please do not make misleading tweets," they said.
Akhilesh Yadav earlier took to X requesting the Election Comission to take cognizance of the pictures related to the news that "Ayodhya police is checking the ID cards of voters in Milkipur."
Calling the alleged incident a "democratic crime of indirectly influencing voting by creating fear among voters", he alleged that "senior police officers are also involved".
Voting for the Milkipur by-election in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya district began on Wednesday morning. This by-election has become a high-stakes prestige battle for the BJP, with the party urging voters to "avenge the defeat."
The fate of candidates in the fray will be decided by the Scheduled Castes (SC)-reserved constituency's 370,829 voters, whereas the main contest is expected to be between Samajwadi Party's Ajit Prasad and the BJP's Chandrabhanu Paswan. (ANI)