BY MOHAMMAD TARIQUE SALEEM
Samajwadi Party state president Shyam Lal Pal, acting on the instructions of national president Akhilesh Yadav, has formally charged Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with systematic and repeated violation of the Model Code of Conduct. In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow, the party has demanded immediate videography of the Chief Minister’s programmes, notices for code breaches, and house arrest of both Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak.
The party alleges that the Chief Minister and his ministers are using the full weight of the state machinery to tilt the ongoing elections for 11 Legislative Council seats in favour of BJP candidates. District Magistrates and other officials are being summoned to circuit houses and dak bungalows and pressured to deliver results for the ruling party. Maurya has camped in the Allahabad-Jhansi constituency while Pathak has set up base in Lucknow, both allegedly working overtime to influence the administration.
Concrete examples listed in the memorandum include the Chief Minister’s 12 October interaction with 12,000 teachers in Gorakhpur, the 13 October announcement of higher honorarium for 68,000 Gram Praharis along with chowkidar recruitment, and the distribution of appointment letters to teachers and principals at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow on 22 September, after the elections had already been formally announced.
All three actions, the party says, were designed to influence teacher and graduate voters in clear breach of the Election Commission’s own 26 December 2016 guidelines. The memorandum further demands that the names and mobile numbers of every engineer and staff member involved in First Level Checking of EVMs and VVPATs be made public immediately, and that voter lists be displayed at every polling station to prevent bogus voting.
It accuses BJP ministers across the state of treating the Model Code of Conduct with open contempt while the Election Commission watches in silence, steadily damaging its own credibility. The memorandum was handed over by K.K. Srivastava, Dr. Harishchandra Singh Yadav and Radheshyam Singh, who insisted on urgent action to ensure the 11 Legislative Council seats are decided through a transparent, impartial and fear-free process.
