A plea issued by the Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati which challenged the ban on her from campaigning for 48 hours by the Election Commission was turned down by the Supreme Court today.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said, "It seems the Election Commission has woken up by our orders and barred various politicians from campaigning for varying timing. This makes it clear no further orders are required now,"
During a recent meeting in Deoband, the BSP chief had warned the Muslim community to not "split votes" between the Congress and her alliance.
However, according to the model code of conduct, appealing to caste or communal feelings to secure votes is not allowed.
The Election Commission on Monday also barred Uttar Pradesh CM, Yogi Adityanath from campaigning for three days because of his communal comments. Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan too has been barred from campaigning for three days due to his "indecent and derogatory" comment against Jaya Prada which had sparked a huge controversy. Meanwhile, even Union minister Maneka Gandhi has been barred from campaigning for 48 hours for allegedly warning the Muslim community to vote for her or else she won’t help them.
This action seems to come after the poll body was accused of being soft on leaders of the ruling party by the opposition parties.
Its action this time came on a day the Supreme Court pulled it up for failing to take action in cases of code violation, and questioning if it was even aware of its powers to force errant political leaders to fall in line