Adityanath, Mayawati, Azam, Maneka face campaign ban for controversial remarks

Cracking the whip, the Election Commission Monday banned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BSP leader Mayawati, SP leader Azam Khan and Union minister Maneka Gandhi from campaigning for their hate comments.

While Adityanath and Khan have been barred for 72 hours, Mayawati and Gandhi face a 48-hour ban. The nationwide ban comes into force at 6 am Tuesday, the poll panel said.

According to EC officials, this is the first time an all-India ban has been imposed on politicians to campaign in elections and also it is for the first time such a restriction has been put against a chief minister.

While Adityanath, Mayawati and Gandhi were found guilty of violating the model code, EC said Khan, who also faced a state-specific ban during 2014 polls, not only violated the poll code, he also disregarded its directive asking politicians to desist from "deeds or actions construed as being repugnant to the honour and dignity of women".

"...the Commission has observed that Azam Khan has not changed his way of campaigning and he is still indulging in using very objectionable language in election campaigning," the order said "reprimanding him".

In its order on Adityanath, the Commission said it "strongly condemns" the impugned statement made by the UP chief minister and "censured" him for "misconduct".

The Election Commission order to bar these leaders came within hours of the Supreme Court taking note of the communal remarks made by Adityanath and Mayawati and asking the poll watchdog about the action it has initiated against them.

However, a senior EC functionary said the Commission had examined the issues of Adityanath and Mayawati on April 14-15, and came up with the final decision on Monday after lots of deliberation as it felt a clear message should go out to the politicians.

Using its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, the EC barred them from "holding any public meetings, public processions, public rallies, road shows and interviews, public utterances in media (print, electronic and social media) in connection with the ongoing elections for 72 and 48 hours from 6.00 am on April 16".

On the different time periods for the leaders, a senior EC official said, "It is for the second time that the Uttar Pradesh CM has been issued a show cause notice by the EC. On April 5, he was asked to be 'careful' in the future. Khan had faced a similar ban in 2014 for campaigning in UP."
SP leader Akhilesh Yadav took to Twitter to ask EC whether it is capable to issue similar directives to the prime minister. "EC directive against @mayawati ji begs the question: do they have integrity to stop PM from asking for votes in name of the army?"