The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati's planned election rally in Ahmedabad on Wednesday was cancelled on Monday after the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister was barred from campaigning for 48 hours by the Election Commission. There is also uncertainty over UP CM Yogi Adityanath campaigning in the state as he too was barred from campaigning for 72 hours.

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Mayawati was issued a notice for her speech in Deoband in UP last week in which she appealed to Muslims to not vote for the Congress party. The commission found that she had violated the model code of conduct, and censured and 'strongly' condemned her remarks while barring her from campaigning for 48 hours starting 6:00 am on Tuesday.

"Mayawati ji was slated to address a rally at the Football Ground, Kankaria, on April 17. However, the programme has been cancelled for now because of the ban on her from campaigning," Gujarat BSP secretary Pradeep Parmar said.

The BSP has fielded candidates in 25 out of 26 LS seats in the state. The party had contested in 138 out of 182 Assembly seats in 2017, but had got just over 2.07 lakh votes, translating into a vote share of 0.7%.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath was slated to campaign for the BJP in the state on April 18, but the visit would be rescheduled, said Prashant Vala, media coordinator of the party' state unit.

Adityanath was served a notice by the EC for comparing the elections to a contest between Ali and Bajrang Bali. The EC found that he had made a highly provocative speech and barred him from campaigning for 72 hours.