Lucknow: Pointing fingers at chief minister Yogi Adityanath for ‘misusing’ govt machinery to reach out to the electoral college which will vote for 11 MLC (Teachers and Graduate) seats, the Samajwadi Party has submitted a memorandum to the chief election officer (CEO) Uttar Pradesh demanding videography of his events and the issuance of notices to him for violation of model code of conduct wherever necessary.Polling for the 11 MLC seats will be held on Oct 23.In its memorandum, the SP also stated that deputy chief ministers Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya were also camping in Allahabad-Jhansi seat region and Lucknow seat area respectively to influence voters to “exert pressure on district magistrates of the region to benefit the BJP in the polls”.The memorandum came on a day when the CM addressed an event in Varanasi to mobilise voters for the MLC polls on Wednesday. On Thursday, the CM is slated to address a similar event in Prayagraj.“The events being chaired by the CM are a violation of model code of conduct. Govt machinery is being used to reach out to the electoral college. These events must be videographed and notices issued for violation of the model code of conduct and further action initiated accordingly,” the memorandum, signed by state president Shyam Lal Pal, stated.The memorandum was submitted by a delegation of senior SP functionaries headed by KK Srivastava, Harishchandra Singh Yadav and Radheyshyam Singh.The memorandum charged ECI with playing a mute spectator to the blatant violation of the poll code, saying that such a stance was compromising the credibility of the constitutional authority entrusted with the task of conducting free and fair elections.The memorandum also demanded that names and mobile numbers of govt engineers and other public servants roped in for the election-related work must be made public and names of voters be pasted outside every polling centre so that it can be verified if the bonafide voters were exercising their franchise.It further states that on Oct 12, the CM addressed 12,000 teachers at an event in Gorakhpur. On Oct 13, the CM addressed 68,000 gram praharis, announced a hike in their allowance and fresh recruitments as a part of a conspiracy to influence the electorate ahead of the elections. On Sept 22, hours after elections to 11 MLC seats were notified by ECI at 10 am, the CM went ahead and distributed appointment letters to principals, headmasters and lecturers at an event in Lucknow to influence the electorate, it further alleged.
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