The Samajwadi Party has terminated its contract with top election management firm, India Political Action Committee (I-PAC,” said party president Akhilesh Yadav. The Lok Sabha member pointed out the shortage of funds ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year.
“They have been working for us for some time, but now we don’t have the funds,” Yadav said at a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday. “We did not cancel our contract because of the election results. We have no money. The BJP will not allow money to come to us,” he said.
He added that SP worked with I-PAC only briefly. “Yes, we had an association. They worked with us for a few months, but we are unable to continue because we do not have that kind of funding,” Yadav said.
What is iPack?
It was founded by a political strategist turned politician Prashant Kishor, I-PAC is known for running high-profile election campaigns across India. Yadav also criticized the consulting ecosystem, saying, “We thought that if we have to work with a ‘winning agency’, there are many big companies.”
In April, the Enforcement Directorate arrested him Vineesh Chandel, one of the company’s founders, in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal.
The federal agency alleged that there was a ‘hawala’ operation where crores of rupees were transferred to I-PAC’s parent company to ‘convert black money into white money’. Although Chandel was released on bail last week, the controversy appears to have prompted the Samajwadi Party to distance itself as it prepares for a “make or break” battle against the BJP.
“What Didi faced, we experienced in 2022”: Akhilesh
Yadav also attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the BJP Election Commission. He claimed that the 2024 assembly polls in UP were a demonstration of the “multi-caste election mafia model”. He alleged that SP voters, especially from the Muslim and Yadav communities, were being systematically disenfranchised.
“In 2022, about 18,000 votes were deleted or changed,” Yadav said. “What ‘Didi [Mamata Banerjee] “Which we faced in 2022.”
“The polling agents from the SP were forcibly removed and the results were changed. The central forces forcibly removed the counting agents from the SP. The Election Commission remained asleep on all the objections raised by our party. Media houses are also collaborating with the BJP and the multi-caste election mafia,” he said.
West Bengal sir
the The Special Intensive Review (SIR) ahead of the West Bengal elections deleted 90,000 voters in the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was in power for 15 years, eventually lost the election to the BJP.
“We all know how the BJP manages and manipulates elections,” Yadav said, thanking SP workers for their efforts in the past polls. “Because of them it was not possible to form a complete majority government.”
“Lessons learned from Bengal will be applied.”
Yadav wondered why the vote counting could not be broadcast publicly. “When court proceedings can be streamed live, why can’t the counting process?” he asked. He asked the Supreme Court to take cognizance of the issue and demanded the publication of CCTV recordings of vote counting in West Bengal.
“Learning from Bengal will now be implemented in “Uttar Pradesh or maybe something bigger will be done here. In 2027, PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) will register a historic victory,” he said. He also said that the party “will continue to serve as a partner in the India Alliance”.
