lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 17, 2019 03:43 IST

A day after the Election Commission (EC) barred Samajwadi Party’s Rampur MLA, Mohammed Azam Khan, from campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections for 72 hours, his son Abdullah Azam Khan on Tuesday gave a religious twist to the EC’s action and alleged that the commission was working at the behest of the BJP.

“The ban has been slapped against him because he (Azam) is a Muslim. The EC has taken a one-sided action to please the BJP. No notice was issued and neither were we heard,” alleged Abdullah. This has been done just to subdue the voices of Dalits and Muslims, he said.

“The EC has taken cognizance of such statement, which does not refer to any name or gender (Azam’s remark on Jaya Prada). If Election Commission has decided that only the BJP wins, it should cancel the nomination of all other candidates,” said Khan.

“Their (BJP) leaders are demanding removal of burqas of Muslim women, Jaya Prada is calling my father a demon, Amar Singh threatened to kill my father…there are many such instances where the EC has failed to take cognizance. By banning Yogi, the EC just wants to show that it is not taking a biased action,” he alleged.