Akhilesh to EC: Give funds to SP, others for digital campaign

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra on Saturday said a ban on rallies, roadshows, and other such physical modes of canvassing will be reviewed on January 15.

Asked whether parties are equipped to contest polls by campaigning digitally, Akhilesh told the media in Lucknow, “I would appeal to EC to give some funds to parties so that they can prepare their infrastructure, because we can’t compete with BJP’s infrastructure…and the democratic set-up is on equal platform.”

He said, “If EC decides for virtual rallies, then some help should be given to parties which do not have a strong infrastructure.”

At the press conference, Akhilesh also said SP’s legal team will lodge a police complaint against the “BJP IT cell head” for purportedly tweeting a photo of him with the wrong perfume trader, of the two Jains recently raided.

“The SP’s legal team will get an FIR against the BJP IT cell head, who sits in Delhi and is ruining UP from there. BJP’s teams are constantly working to ensure fake news is spread,” he said.

Without naming Amit Malviya, the SP chief said, “He has uploaded a photograph of mine saying that the perfume trader who was raided is also standing with me. We will definitely get an FIR against that person.”

BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said, “Akhilesh Yadav’s fury shows he is afraid of both the I-T department and BJP’s IT cell. The I-T department’s raids have ruined his plans to buy votes through unaccounted money.”

At the press conference, Akhilesh showed a screenshot of Malviya’s tweet, posted Friday, which said, “In May 2015, Akhilesh Yadav had taken a delegation to France’s Grasse. The reason that was given was to build a perfume park. A photograph of the trip shows his perfume friend. He is the same person behind whose walls and land, public money was found.”

The image showed Akhilesh, and also had SP MLC Pushpraj Jain “Pampi” and senior party leader Abhishek Mishra along with some French delegates.

Last month, the I-T department had raided Pushpraj Jain and another perfume trader named Peeyush Jain; more than Rs 1.60 crore cash was recovered from Peeyush’s Kanpur home. While BJP claims Peeyush is close to SP, Akhilesh has denied any link between his party and Peeyush.

On Malviya, Akhilesh said, without naming him: “There is no bigger liar than the BJP and its people… We will lodge the complaint now, but action will be taken after we form government…. This person is a liar. He is lying for money. He is lying with support from the Centre and UP government. I will appeal to my digital team to advertise him as the biggest liar.”