The Samajwadi Party fired a broadside at the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday over EC’s decision to lift ban on BJP leader Amit Shah from holding public rallies in Uttar Pradesh while not granting a similar concession to senior SP leader Azam Khan.
Khan launched a vitriolic attack on the EC and State Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav backed him. The Commission refused to relent and issued a show-cause notice to Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav for allegedly threatening contractual Government schoolteachers in Uttar Pradesh to vote for his party.
As the Samajwadi Party rallied behind Azam Khan over his on-going battle with the EC, Khan dubbed the constitutional body as anti-Muslim. Earlier in the day, Azam Khan said in Rampur that he will not apologise for an alleged hate speech which invited the EC action against him.
He asked why the Election Commission had not lifted the ban on his campaigning like it did for the BJP leader Amit Shah. Khan said the EC action smacked of “undeclared Emergency”. “I have done nothing wrong that warrants an apology. I have not committed a crime,” he said at a Press conference in Rampur. Hitting out at the EC for lifting the ban on Shahbut not granting him a similar relief, Khan said he would move the Supreme Court against the poll panel’s order barring him from campaigning in Uttar Pradesh.
“I have done nothing wrong. Can any Commission be above the Supreme CourtIJ The Election Commission has a misunderstanding that its arbitrary powers can’t be challenged in any court,” he said. In lucknow, Akhilesh Yadav said the SP had sent a legal letter to the EC persuading it to lift the ban on Azam. “The EC has imposed ban on Azam without going through his reply...I hope, the Commission will soon lift his ban too (as it has done in case of Narendra Modi’s close aide),” Akhilesh Yadav said.
SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav has sent a three-page letter to the EC seeking revocation of the ban on campaigning by Azam Khan after Shah has been allowed to address public meetings and hold road shows in UP. In the letter addressed to principal secretary, Election Commission, Yadav has enumerated in detail various statements made by different leaders during the campaign on which the EC has taken no notice.
Meanwhile, holding that Mulayam Singh Yadav’s prima facie violated the Model Code of Conduct, the Commission has given him time till Sunday evening to send his reply, failing which it will take action. On April 3, addressing an election rally in Bulandshahr in UP, SP party supremo had allegedly threatened contractual Government primary schoolteachers to vote for his party or else they will not be made permanent.
Issuing him the notice, the Commission reminded him of the provision in the Model Code which bars the party in power, whether at the Centre or in the State, to use its official position for the purposes of its election campaign. Also, it was in violation of Para VII (vi) (a) of the model code that specifically states that ministers and other authorities shall not announce any financial grants in form of promises thereof.