India News | UP Polls: EC Bars Abbas Ansari from Campaigning for 24 Hours
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Election Commission on Friday barred Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party candidate Abbas Ansari from campaigning for 24 hours in the ongoing Uttar Pradesh assembly polls over a speech threatening to "settle the account" with government officials.
New Delhi, Mar 4 (PTI) The Election Commission on Friday barred Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party candidate Abbas Ansari from campaigning for 24 hours in the ongoing Uttar Pradesh assembly polls over a speech threatening to "settle the account" with government officials.
The 24-hour ban on the Mau candidate began at 7 pm on Friday.
Abbas is the son of jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari.
The Election Commission order cited a video clip of Abbas Ansari's speech in Hindi, in which he threatens to "settle the account" with government officials.
"Commission has observed that the aforesaid statement is threatening to various officers including officers assigned election duties to conduct peaceful, free & fair elections and hence the statement has potential to interfere with free exercise of the electoral right of electors...," the order read.
The order noted that an FIR has already been lodged against the candidate.
Deploring Ansari for his statement and censuring him, the order said, "The Commission...orders to prohibit him from holding any public meetings, public processions, public rallies, road shows and interviews, public utterances in media (electronic, print, social media) etc. in connection with ongoing elections for 24 hours from 07:00 pm on 04.03.2022(Friday)."
Ansari is contesting on the ticket of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), which has a tie-up with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)