The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati’s plea against the 48-hour ban on campaigning imposed by the Election Commission (EC).
“It seems the Election Commission has woken up by our orders and taken action against various politicians from campaigning for varying timing,” the court said.
Mayawati had been barred from campaigning for 48 hours by the EC over an alleged speech delivered by her during an election campaign rally.
Besides Mayawati, the EC has also barred Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union minister Maneka Gandhi and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan.
The Commission had earlier served a show cause notice on Yogi Adityanath for his “Ali-Bajrang Bali” remark at a political rally.
On April 9, Yogi Adityanath, at a rally had said that if the Congress, SP and the BSP had faith in “Ali”, “then we also have faith in Bajrang Bali”.
The Commission also took note of Mayawati’s speech at Deoband on April 7. After going through a video clip of her speech, the poll panel said it was, prima facie, a violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
