Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party for the violence in Kolkata during its party chief Amit Shah’s roadshow on Tuesday and quested the Election Commission’s order cutting short campaigning in West Bengal by 19 hours.
“The BJP and RSS were responsible for the violence in Kolkata to divert public attention from the failure of the Central government. The PM has been targeting the Mamata (Banerjee) government for a long time,” Mayawati said.
In a statement released in Lucknow on Thursday, the BSP chief said the country knows the reality of violent incidents in West Bengal and how the BJP is trying to create disturbances there.
“The manner in which the ‘guru’ and ‘chela’ are after the Mamata government is also indicative of a ‘dangerous design’ which is not only wrong but unjustified. Such a conspiracy to defame Mamata and her government is unbecoming of a PM,” she charged.
“The BJP tried to create similar situation in Uttar Pradesh as well but we were cautious and prevented it,” she said.
Mayawati also slammed the Election Commission for ending the campaigning in West Bengal on Thursday night and asked whether it was waiting for the Prime Minister to complete his public meetings and create hurdle before others.
“This time the Election Commission has failed to hold free and fair polls in the country and it seems that a political party is dictating its terms,” she alleged.
After the clash between Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters in Kolkata, the Election Commission on Wednesday ordered that campaigning in nine West Bengal constituencies would end at 10 pm on Thursday, a day before its scheduled deadline.
Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar had said that it was for the first time that such an action had been taken using constitutional powers of the panel. The Election Commission invoked Article 324 of the Constitution to curtail campaigning for the last phase of the election.