Deploy adequate forces in east UP booths for fair poll: BJP to Election Commission

BJP on Friday asked the Election Commission to ensure adequate deployment of central security forces on all polling booths in eastern Uttar Pradesh for a "free and fair" election.

"BJP very earnestly requests the Election Commission to deploy adequate number of central forces on all booths of UP's Poorvanchal region (eastern region) so that a free and fair election may get conducted here," said BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad at a press conference in Varanasi.

Hitting out at the Congress, Prasad said they lodge complaints before the EC against Modi like "kids with petty excuses". According to the Representation of Peoples Act, a person can canvass at above a distance of 100 metres after casting votes. Modi did the same thing as he spoke to the media at a distance permissible by the EC, the BJP leader said.

Replying to a query that the EC ordered the FIR against Modi with a biased approach, Prasad said, "we have full respect for EC but the poll body should have first enquired about the incident and then ordered for registering an FIR".

"When leaders like Abu Azmi and Azam Khan gives hate speeches and remarks, why doesn't this Congress complain to the Election commission," he asked.

Leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad, Mayawati, Nitish Kumar, and Arvind Kejriwal are campaigning only against Modi and speaking against him, he claimed.