Lawyers urge poll panel to act against Mayawati

A group of lawyers Friday urged the Election Commission to freeze the election symbol of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and disqualify its chief, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, from contesting elections, as they accused her of violating the model of code of conduct by installing her statues in Lucknow.

"We want the Uttar Pradesh chief minister to be disqualified as she is installing her statues and those her party symbol (elephant) in public parks. Her party symbol should also be changed," Ravi Kant, a Supreme Court lawyer flanked by his colleagues, told reporters here.

"The installation of statues could influence the voters and this is clearly the violation of the model code of conduct," he said.

Ravi Kant in July filed a lawsuit in the apex court against Mayawati, accusing her of wasting public money by installing statues largely of herself and her political mentor Kanshi Ram.

But the apex court had rejected the demand that Mayawati be restrained in her spree of erecting statues. The apex court said it could not intervene unless there were charges of corruption.

"We expressed our concern about installation of several statues by Mayawati, which has cost several hundred crores," Ravi Kant added.

"These statues are a clear violation to the free and fair elections, which is the hallmark of Indian democracy," he said.

"We have submitted a petition before the Election Commission," he said.

The 33-page petition was submitted to Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath.

Ravi Kant had appealed the apex court at least to stop the Uttar Pradesh government from installing statues in a Noida park on the Yamuna riverbed.

But a bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam said since the decision to raise the statues was taken by the state cabinet, it would not intervene in the matter.

Last updated on Jul 17^th, 2009 at 20:04 pm IST--IANS