Samajwadi Party on Monday asked the Election Commission to ban Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath from campaigning for the by-polls to 11 Assembly and one Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, slated for September 13, for his alleged remarks on "love jihad".
SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said Adityanath was continuously making provocative comments, which have become more vocal after he became an MP.
"The party has already written a letter to the commission to take action against Adityanath trying to incite communal passion by raising the issue of love jihad again and now it demands that he should be banned from campaigning," SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary here said.
He said to benefit BJP in by-polls for 11 seats of Assembly and one of Lok Sabha, Adityanath was continuously making provocative comments.
He said but now as the BJP MP has become more vocal, a ban should be imposed on him from campaigning.
"We have demanded the EC to take action against Adityanath; let's see what it does. We will wait, but if the EC does not take any action then we will talk to the senior leadership after Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav returns from the Netherlands' visit and decide further strategy this week," Chaudhary said.
He said as a part of strategy, BJP withdrew from the issue of "love jihad" during its state executive meeting, but "it was fuelling the issue behind the curtains through organisations such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Hindu Yuva Vahini and Bajrang Dal".
Terming dharna from BJP MPs from Uttar Pradesh against power crisis as farce, the spokesman said they were only indulging into politics.
"BJP MPs are indulging into gimmickry on the issue of power crisis, law and order. They don't believe in Mahatma Gandhi, but they are staging a dharna infront of his statue.
"They are not concerned with issues related to the people," he said.
Chaudhary said the BJP MPs were not talking to the Centre on the issue of power crisis.
"They are not cooperating and we will raise this issue before the people in the by-polls," he said.
