May 17, 2024 02:42 (IST)
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Azam Khan slams EC for banning him
Lucknow, Apr 18 (IBNS) A day after the Election Commission (EC) lifted the ban on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s general secretary Amit Shah, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan on Friday slammed the poll panel.
"The Election Commission is punishing me without even reading my reply to the charges. It is punishing me for telling truth while it has let my friend (Amit Shah), a person like him, to campaign publicly. Is it correct on the part of the commission," Khan told media.
The SP earlier in the day urged the autonomous authority to allow its leader Azam Khan to hold poll rallies too.
"We want the EC to reconsider its decision on Amit Shah. We also appeal to the EC to lift the ban on Azam Khan," said SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary.
Meanwhile, SP leader Naresh Agrawal alleged that the EC works under the directives of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
"The ban has been lifted on Modi aide Amit Shah. But the ban remains on Azam Khan. The double standards of the EC is clear. Seems it works under the pressure of the BJP and Modi. We condemn the EC's move," Agrawal said.
The EC on Thursday lifted ban on Shah on campaigning in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh.
"This came after Shah told the commission that he will not use derogatory or abusive language in poll campaigns," The Hindustan Times reported.
BJP's Uttar Pradesh in-charge Amit Shah had earlier urged people to take their revenge by voting for his party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a rally at a riot-hit Jat village near Muzaffarnagar, Shah said, "If you want to take revenge, vote for the BJP."
"In today's time you can't take revenge with swords and arrows like it was done in the Mughat era. But today the people are constantly being denied justice ... they are not getting their rights. So, you press the right button (on the Electronic Voting Machine) and show people their right place," he said.
The EC had banned him from holding public rallies and road shows Uttar Pradesh.
The EC banned Azam Khan from holding rallies after he created a controversy by saying it was Muslim soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country in the Kargil War.
"The soldiers who brought victory in Kargil were not Hindu but Muslim soldiers. It was our Muslim brothers who conquered the peaks of Kargil mountains," he had said addressing a rally in Uttar Pradesh.
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