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Journalism of Courage
A BJP leader has moved the Election Commission against BSP chief Mayawati accusing her of seeking votes in the name of caste and demanded that her party be debarred from contesting elections. BJP’s UP executive member Neeraj Shankar Saxena moved a petition against Mayawati on Saturday demanding that her party be debarred from contesting polls and filing of FIR against her for “flouting” Supreme Court directives.
“Mayawati during her press conference on December 24 and January 3 presented caste-wise details of ticket distribution clearly stating that her party has given tickets to how many Muslims, backwards, SCs and others,” Saxena told PTI. Besides, her party men are distributing booklets titled “Muslim samaj ka sachcha hitaishi kaun-faisla aap karein” in all the constituencies, he claimed, adding this too was against the SC directives that votes cannot be sought on the basis of caste, community or language.
On January 3, Mayawati had said in a press conference that of the 403 seats, 85 are reserved for the SCs and 87 tickets have been given to Dalits, 97 to Muslims, 106 to OBCs, 66 to Brahmins, 36 to Kshetriyas and 11 to Kayasthas, Vaishyas and Punjabis. The apex court in its ruling last week had said religion and caste cannot be used to seek votes and made it clear that religion has no role in the electoral process and that it is just a secular activity.
