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Vijaya Pushkarna
Vijaya Pushkarna

ASSEMBLY POLLS

BJP seeks transfer of top officers, deployment of central forces in UP

PTI2_4_2017_000207B BJP supporters at a party rally in Meerut | PTI

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday urged the Election Commission to replace Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar and transfer Javeed Ahmed, director general of police, Daljit Chawdhary,  additional DG (law and order) and the district magistrates of Rampur, Meerut and Firozabad immediately in the interest of free and fair elections. 

In a written representation submitted to the commission, the BJP demanded that they be replaced with "non-partisan officers of integrity". 

The party has also sought the deployment of central armed police forces in and around the polling stations and flag marches in sensitive districts like Rampur, Sambhal, Muzzaffarnagar and Meerut among others. 

The delegation included Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, MoS Minorities Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and MoS Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman. 

BJP, which is fighting a tough electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh, maintained that deteriorating law and order situation had resulted in fear gripping the state and permeating down to the party rank and file.

It urged the poll panel to issue a "firm advisory" to all the District Election Officers and Returning Officers to ensure that there are no delays or denials of legitimate requests made by authorized BJP functionaries. "There appears to be a pattern of delay or denial of permissions and approvals requested by the BJP's district units..even when such requests were as per the electoral laws and rules," the party said, adding that even though they had taken up the matter with the State Election Office, nothing had changed on the ground.

The BJP delegation also appealed to the commission to ensure that they are allowed to deploy motor cycles affixed with the party symbol and flags along with the loud hailers—these had been confiscated by the state police citing violation of Motor Vehicles Act.

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