Lucknow:
The Election Commission has taken note of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister,Akhilesh Yadav's, support to a party candidate who exhorted people to ensure 100 percent voting without any fear of cases being slapped against them.
Mr Yadav supported party candidate from Noida,Narendra Bhati, whose statement was caught on tape. Poll officials told IANS that while cases have been slapped against Mr Bhati,the matter has not ceased to end there.He said that Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh,Umesh Sinha, has sought details of Akhilesh Yadav's interactions with the media
this Tuesday,in which he made light of Mr Bhati's comments.
Alluding to Bhati's statement in which he said,"we have our own government,even if the poll panel files cases suspecting bogus voting, don't be scared, we will withdraw cases soon after the Lok Sabha polls."The chief minister replied saying,"people have the right to booth management."
While initially feigning ignorance on what Mr Bhati said, Akhilesh Yadav snapped back at reporters saying,"There was nothing wrong in booth management."The opposition-BJP pounced on Yadav's statement and said that the chief minister was in fact promoting illegal acts such as bogus voting."This is simply preposterous,the chief minister openly backing a party leader who is talking of breaking laws,"said Vijay Bahadur Pathak, state spokesman of the BJP.
Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP)'s Swamy Prasad Maurya said that nothing better could be expected of Mr Bhati or any other Samajwadi Party (SP) leader, including the chief minister."We have always been saying that there is mafia raj in the state,this is yet another example," he said.
The BJP has now decided to petition to the EC.Umesh Sinha told IANS that the commission was seized of the matter and that a case has been slapped against Bhati. He added that the poll panel will look into the statement of the chief minister too and act in accordance with the Model Code of Conduct.
Mr Bhati had earlier shot into limelight for using intemperate language against Indian Administrative Service officer Durga Shakti Nagpal and claiming in public that he got the bureaucrat shunted out from Noida on a phone call to the chief minister.The issue then snowballed into major embarrassment for the Akhilesh Yadav-led state government.