By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday urged the Election Commission to serve a notice to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for using public money to install statues, including of herself, in Lucknow.
“We request the Election Commission to serve a notice to Mayawati on the issue. Mayawati’s statue with the elephant, which is the symbol of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), defies the Election Commission’s model code of conduct (whenever elections take place),” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
Prasad said: “The Supreme Court has started an investigation into the matter. It has happened for the first time in a democratic country that a sitting political leader has got a statue of herself erected. Saddam Hussain had done it in Iraq.”
“We would not protest the statues of Dr. B.R Ambedkar in Lucknow because he was an icon of the country and we respect him,” Prasad added.
Prompted allegedly by a petition in the Supreme Court, Mayawati Thursday night surprised many and unveiled as many as 15 projects, including memorials and statues eight days before the schedule.
Officials admitted that the unveiling ceremony was to take place July 3 but Mayawati changed the schedule as Delhi-based lawyer Ravi Kant filed a public interest litigation in the apex court seeking to prevent her from inaugurating the statues.
The Supreme Court Monday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to explain, within four weeks, the use of public money for installing statues of Mayawati and other prominent Dalit leaders.