A controversy has arisen over the cancellation of four rallies of Samajwadi Party in Azamgarh. These rallies were to be addressed by SP president Akhilesh Yadav, who is contesting from Azamgarh, on Friday.
On Thursday night, the Samajwadi Party had alleged that the Azamgarh district administration had withdrawn permission for Friday’s rallies.
However, Azamgarh’s District Magistrate Shivakant Dwivedi said that he had received a request for cancellation of the public meetings of former chief minister from SP district unit president Havaldar Yadav.
The district magistrate said: “We have received a letter from Samajwadi Party stating that all the public rallies of Akhilesh Yadav on May 10 stand cancelled and hence kindly cancel the permission for helipad and helicopter with immediate effect.”
The district magistrate also released copy of the letter written to him by the SP district president.
Sources in the SP said the reason for cancellation of the rallies was the poll expenditure limit of Rs 70 lakh for a Lok Sabha candidate as fixed by the Election Commission.
The SP has already incurred an expenditure of Rs 70 lakh on the poll campaign in Azamgarh.
The Election Commission’s expenditure observer had issued notices to the candidates of all political parties regarding the expenditure limit on election and poll campaign. The notice led to the cancellation of the rallies by the SP president.
According to the EC guidelines, a candidate can spend up to Rs 70 lakh during his election. This includes election office expenses, and expenses incurred on publicity and public meetings. The EC has set rates for this, based on which the district administration keeps account of the expenditure.
It is believed that Akhilesh Yadav has reached the election expenditure limit of Rs 70 lakh. In such a situation, if he crosses the limit of Rs 70 lakh after the public meetings, it would have invited the ire of the EC.
The Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat goes to polls on May 12 and the BJP candidate is Bhojpuri star Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua.