It’s better late than never. The elections commission of India has finally taken a step to prevent caste and communal politics in the country. EC has barred UP CM Yogi Adityanath and BSP supremo Mayawati from holding public meetings for 72 and 48 hours respectively.
The EC forced the ban on Mayawati for her recently exposed “Muslim vote polarization” strategy. Last week, in a public meeting in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoband, BSP chief said- “People of all community live in Western Uttar Pradesh…in Saharanpur, Bareilly where there is a sizeable Muslim population and I want to ask them not to divide your votes by voting for Congress. Give your votes to SP-BSP and RLD alliance.” The rally jointly held with Samajwadi Party after two decades in Deoband.
The Deoband rally was also addressed by Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh – with less than a week left for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The SP president also echoed the sentiment of the BSP chief urging the people not to split the votes.
After Mayawati’s communal statement, UP CM Yogi Adityanath takes the field to counter BSP supremo’s word. He said, ‘If they banks on “Ali” we believe in “Bajrang Bali”. Many reports have been filed against the leaders’ statements and then a week after EC replies with the ban.
For the first time in Indian democratic history, the election commission of India has taken such appreciable step during election season. According to EC, this step needed to be taken for the sake of authentic democracy and transparent elections.
