The Election Commission on Saturday ordered that all statues of Chief Minister Mayawati and her party symbol--the elephant--installed at several places in Uttar Pradesh be covered until the completion of the assembly poll process.
“The elephant is also the election symbol of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). It creates confusion in the mind of the electorate and is related to the model code of conduct,” Chief Election Commissioner S Y Qureshi told reporters here.
The move will also accord a “level-playing field” to all the parties. The commission directive is being considered as a big setback to Mayawati just before the assembly elections. There are over 300 statues of Mayawati and her party symbol at parks in Lucknow and Noida. The UP government had spent thousands of crores on them. There are nine statues of Mayawati at different places in the state capital alone. One of them is a 24-foot bronze structure.
Incidently, Mayawati was the only leader in the country who had got her own statues constructed despite sharp criticisms from her opponents. She had said that it was the wish of BSP founder Kanshiram that she should get her own statues built and installed along with other Dalit icons.
Immediately after the Election Commission order, the work on covering the statues began in the state capital. “The statues are quite high and grand and it will require machines to reach them for draping,” said an official.
Opposition parties had urged the commission to either remove or drape the statues of Mayawati and the elephants as they could influence the electorate and thus put them in a disadvantageous position in the assembly elections.
Qureshi, who held review meetings with the state civil and police officials during his two-day visit, also hinted that some key officials could be removed from their posts. He also expressed serious concern over the recovery of huge amount of cash in the state.
He said the commission had also directed the officials to keep a watch on the production and sale of liquor.
He added that media monitoring committees would be keeping a watch on the paid news.