Separately, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too sought the removal of some officials, who according to it are working as “BJP agents”. Accusing four top officials of the Uttar Pradesh government of “working like BJP workers”, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Sunday urged the Election Commission of India to remove them from their posts immediately for “fair and unbiased election”.
The four officers named by the SP are Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal; ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar and ADG Amitabh Yash.
A day after the EC announced the election schedule for the state, thereby ushering in model code of conduct, the SP in a memorandum to Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said: “In the BJP government of Uttar Pradesh, Awanish Awasthi Additional Chief secretary; Navneet Sehgal, Additional Chief Secretary (Information); ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar and ADG Amitabh Yash are working like ruling party’s workers. Without their removal, an independent, unbiased and influence-free election is not possible.”
“The Samajwadi Party demands that the above-named officers be removed from their posts immediately so a fair and independent election can be held in the state,” the memorandum signed by SP national secretary Rajendra Chaudhary stated.
Separately, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too sought the removal of some officials, who according to it are working as “BJP agents”. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged that the BJP is misusing the government machinery. “There are apprehensions that the government may misuse these officials and the Election Commission must immediately remove the officials who worked as the agents of the BJP in the past five years,” he said.
Singh said his party will follow directives of the Election Commission and constitute door-to-door campaigning teams.
On December 28, Congress had also sought the removal of Awanish Awasthi saying that“he will influence the polls”. The Congress had also demanded deployment of Central forces, saying it has “doubts over the impartiality of UP Police”. —With PTI
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