New Delhi, April 16:The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over the Election Commission’s action banning Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BSP supremo Mayawati, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi and Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan from campaigning for varying period.
“It seems you’ve got your powers back,” says the CJI, adding, no interim orders needed at this stage.
On behalf of Mayawati, senior counsel Dushyant Dave said the ECI’s action against her was “extremely drastic” and that the court should take up her plea at 2 pm as her meetings were already scheduled.
But the court refused to entertain Mayawati’s plea against EC ban and asked her to file a separate petition.
Castigating Adityanath and Mayawati for communal remarks made by them during campaign speeches, the Election Commission in separate orders on Monday had barred them from campaigning for 72 hours and 48 hours, respectively.
Holding Yogi guilty of breaking the model code of conduct through his speeches, the poll panel said: “Being the CM of a state, Yogi Adityanath has an added responsibility to not only uphold the basic tenets of the Constitution, including secularism, but also to display the same in his public appearances/speeches as well.”
Yogi has been pulled up for calling the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) a “virus” as well as for his April 9 speech in which he had said, “If the Congress, SP and BSP have faith in Ali, we have faith in Bajrangbali (another name for Lord Hanuman).”
The panel has barred him from holding public meetings, processions, rallies, roadshows and interviews, public utterances in media, etc, for 72 hours from 6 am on April 16.
Meanwhile, the EC has censured Mayawati for 48 hours from 6 am on April 16 for her statement asking members of the Muslim community to vote for the SP-BSP coalition at a rally in Deoband on April 7.
“Mayawati, being a senior leader, should have desisted herself from making statements that have the undertone and propensity to polarise the elections, which is not confined to the constituency where the statement is made,” the EC said.
The order comes three days before phase-II of polling. Eight constituencies in UP go to the polls on April 18.
