The Election Commission of India (ECI,) on the 11th of April, issued a notice to Mayawati Das, the President of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC.)
The MCC is a set of guidelines issued by the ECI, which every politician has to follow during the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in India.
The MCC comes into force after the ECI announces the dates of the elections and continues until the results of the elections are announced.
According to the notice issued to Mayawati, she violated the MCC during a public rally, which was held on the 7th of March, in Sharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
The Election Commission (EC) of Uttar Pradesh, said, The Commission received a complaint, which says, Ms. Das during her speech influenced Muslim voters and asked them to not vote for a particular party.
J.P.S. Rathore, the Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also wrote a letter to the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Uttar Pradesh alleging, appealing to Muslims not to vote for a particular party, which might create a hurdle in a free and fair polls.
The ECI also asked Ms. Das to respond with an explanation regarding her words by the 14th of April.
Stay tuned for further updates about the story.