The Samajwadi Party members in the Lok Sabha on Thursday held a white sheet of cloth with “Chunav Aayog (Election Commission)” emblazoned on it to protest against the poll panel’s alleged bias during the Assembly bypoll in Uttar Pradesh’s Milkipur.

Outside the House, the SP members said the white sheet symbolised a “funeral shroud”, stressing the poll panel was “dead”, given the extent of the “irregularities” committed by election officials on the ground during the bypoll on Wednesday.

“The Election Commission did not fulfil its responsibilities. I have repeatedly pointed out that the Milkipur by-election is a special election…. I came straight to Parliament, otherwise, I would have brought white clothes for the EC as it has already died,” SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, the MP from Kannauj, told reporters on the Parliament premises.

The BJP accused the SP of lowering the dignity of Parliament and insulting a constitutional body. “The SP members broke all decorum and presented a funeral shroud for the Election Commission in front of the Speaker. This kind of misdeed had never happened in parliamentary proceedings of India till now,” BJP MP Sambit Patra told reporters.

“The Election Commission is a constitutional institution and calling it dead and presenting a funeral shroud for it is a blow to democracy. The BJP demands that the Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav apologise for this misdeed in Parliament,” Patra added.

Akhilesh justified the protest claiming that hundreds of complaints were lodged but the poll panel took no action. He alleged that the Election Commission did not ensure a free and fair poll and said officials of a particular caste were deputed to conduct the elections.

The Milkipur bypoll is a prestige battle for chief minister Yogi Adityanath.