Hyderabad MP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday, August 14, criticised Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath over reports that state government officials of “Yadav and Muslim” communities were being “removed” from duty in the districts where 10 assembly seats are going to by-elections in that state.
Asaduddin Owaisi also appealed to the Election Commission of India to ensure free and fair elections.
The Hyderabad MP said, “This (reported) statement of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister shows that he does not want free and fair by-polls in Uttar Pradesh.”
As per Article 324 of the Constitution, conducting elections is the responsibility of the Election Commission. He noted and sought to know whether the EC would accept the “diktat” of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and “won’t deploy Yadav and Muslim officials.”
The AIMIM chief highlighted that no chief minister or Prime Minister can decide whether a particular officer will be posted or not during the elections.
It is the Election Commission that will decide about the deployment of officials during polls. He said a government officer represents the government, and the officer does not represent any religion or caste and is a government employee.
“Now it is our appeal to the Election Commission that when the Uttar Pradesh chief minister has said that he does not want to keep the officials of the two (from Muslim and Yadav) communities, it is a big responsibility on the poll panel to prove the Uttar Pradesh chief minister wrong and ensure that the by-elections to ten seats are conducted in a free and fair manner,” Owaisi said.
Owaisi further alleged that it is the communal behaviour of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister that he sees the government employees through the communal lens and added, “This has always been his (UP CM) behaviour, and it shows how much he hates these communities.”
By-elections in Uttar Pradesh are to be held for 10 assembly constituencies later this year. This includes assembly constituencies that are left out by prominent leaders in UP, including Akhilesh Yadav and Awadhesh Prasad, who have won Lok Sabha.
The Samajwadi Party and Indian National Congress (INC) are taking on the BJP together as the INDIA bloc, following their remarkable success for the Lok Sabha seats in UP.
(With inputs from PTI)
