Lucknow, Nov 20 (IANS): The recovery of a young Dalit woman’s dead body from inside a sack in Uttar Pradesh’s Karhal constituency this morning, kicked up a political storm as the victim’s family alleged that she was killed for backing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the ongoing by-elections.

The Dalit woman’s family claimed that she was being pressurised by a person named Prashant Yadav to cast her vote for the Samajwadi Party.

“She was killed for showing her political preference towards BJP,” her father told newsmen.

The family lodged a complaint with the police last evening and today the body of the woman was found in a field near Kanjara village by a police team.

Vinod Kumar, a senior police official briefing the media said that the two accused including Prashant Yadav were arrested for abducting the woman on Wednesday and they are being grilled and investigated.

“The woman had gone missing since last evening. Two people were accused of abducting her, and they have been arrested. They are being grilled. Post-mortem is being done to know the reason behind death,” he said.

“Those accused will be brought to task,” he added.

Yashpal Singh, father of the deceased Dalit woman said, “Three days ago, a person named Prashant Yadav reached our house and warned us to vote for the cycle symbol or else face consequences. He and his accomplices fumed at our preference for the flower (Lotus) and not the cycle. Yadav threatened us to vote for ‘cycle’, the election symbol of the Samajwadi Party but when my daughter refused, he and his associates forcibly took away my daughter from our residence yesterday.”

“We sought help from Bablu Netaji. I also sent my son to search for her. When he reached Prashant Yadav’s residence, he saw her slippers at his residence. It was then we rushed to his house and caught him. We called the police, who then apprehended him,” he further said.

He further informed that besides Prashant Yadav, two other associates who accompanied him were Mohit Yadav and Mohan Katheria.

BJP launched a scathing attack on the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party over the woman’s murder.

"At Karhal in Mainpuri district, Samajwadi Party's Prashant Yadav and his aides brutally murdered a Dalit daughter only because she refused to vote for 'cycle'," said state BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary in a post on X.

Karhal, which falls in Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh, went to polls on Wednesday. The seat was vacated after SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav contested the Lok Sabha election. Considered an SP stronghold since 1993, the party fielded Akhilesh Yadav's nephew Tej Pratap Yadav from the seat.

BJP has pitted a Yadav candidate named Anujesh Yadav against Tej Pratap Yadav. The constituency comprises about 1.4 lakh voters, out of which Dalits and Muslims make up 40,000 and 15,000 votes respectively.