Lucknow: The Congress on Wednesday wrote to the Election Commission asking for action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for "using government machinery/money for inaugurations and making political statements at these events".
The party - which has postponed events in poll-bound states because of the Covid surge - also asked the top poll body to "cancel big rallies (in the state) in view of an anticipated third wave of Covid cases".
"Congress has decided to postpone major rallies in UP and other poll-bound states. We have asked state units to assess the COVID-19 situation in their states and then take a decision on holding rallies," the party's General Secretary, KC Venugopal, was quoted by news agency ANI.
The Congress and other major opposition parties in UP have been repeatedly targeted by Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Adityanath - who have accused them of poor governance and neglecting the state's development needs - in the build-up to the February-March election.
While this is not surprising, the platforms of choice have raised eyebrows, with the Prime Minister, in particular, using government events to deliver what seem to be politically-motivated speeches.
One example was the pot shot at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in early December, when the Prime Minister launched a Rs 9,800 crore water canal project in UP's Balrampur.
Mr Yadav hit back by highlighting the use of government buses to ferry crowds of people back and forth from lavish events (ostensibly to inaugurate infrastructure projects) held by the BJP.
In November too Mr Yadav - whose party and he were subject to a 'lal topi', or 'red hat', attack by the Prime Minister - hit out at the BJP over people being ferried to government events.
Meanwhile, the call to postpone rallies comes amid concern over the spike in Covid cases; this morning 58,097 new cases were reported in India - a sixth daily increase in the past nine days.
The Allahabad High Court last month asked the Election Commission to defer the UP polls, if only by a few months. However, after meeting with Health Ministry officials the commission said it would be held.
Some preventive measures were announced - including extending voting hours and increasing the number of voting booths - but the commission shied away from immediately cracking down on political rallies attended by tens of thousands of and during which social distancing is absent.
"Our responsibility begins after poll dates are announced and the model code of conduct kicks in. Till then, the responsibility lies with the state government, and they would act as per recommendations of the state disaster management authority," Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said.
UP reported 989 new cases in 24 hours, with 23 of them being of the Omicron strain. Overall the state's active Covid caseload is 3,173, of which 31 are Omicron.
With input from ANI