Communal speech: EC bars Adiyanath, Mayawati from campaigning for 72 and 48 hrs respectively

In a first, the EC on Monday imposed a nation-wide ban on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati from campaigning for 72 and 48 hours respectively from Tuesday for their "provocative" communal remarks, which it said had the "propensity to polarise the elections".

The Election Commission order to bar these leaders came within few hours of the Supreme Court taking note of the communal remarks by them during their Lok Sabha poll campaigns and asking the poll watchdog about the action it has initiated against them.

However, a senior EC functionary said the commission had examined the two issues 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.

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

Using its constitutional powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, the EC barred him 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 hours (three days) 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."
"EC directive against @mayawati ji begs the question: do they have integrity to stop PM from asking for votes in name of the army?