A day after the poll body cut short the campaign period in West Bengal, BSP Chief Mayawati accused EC of succumbing to PM Narendra Modi‘s wishes.
The EC cut short poll campaigning in West Bengal after clashes erupted between BJP and TMC in Calcutta during Amit Shah‘s roadshow in the city. BSP Chief Mayawati slammed EC on this behalf stating that the Election Commission was acting according to the interests of the Prime Minister.
“It is very sad that the Election Commission has banned campaigning in West Bengal, but from 10 pm today just because the Prime Minister has two rallies in the day. If they had to impose this ban, why not from today morning. This is unfair and EC is acting under pressure. We condemn this in the strongest terms. If a ban had to be imposed it should have been from today morning itself,” Mayawati told ANI.
“Since the announcement of Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal has continuously been in news. For this the BJP and RSS are fully responsible. Regular election related violence in West Bengal shows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his disciple Amit Shah are leading the campaign of targeting the Mamata Banerjee government since a long time,” she said.
The EC invoked article 324 to curtail campaigning for the last phase of elections on May 19. The curtailing of campaign took place in constituencies of Barasat, Dum Dum, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin, Kolkata Uttar and Diamond Harbour. However deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar said that this was the first time such kind of action was taken by the Election Commission.