This story is from May 10, 2019

Azamgarh rallies of Akhilesh nixed, SP cries conspiracy

Azamgarh rallies of Akhilesh nixed, SP cries conspiracy
Azamgarh: In a dramatic development two days before campaigning for the sixth phase ends, all four of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s public meetings scheduled in Azamgarh were cancelled on Thursday.
Akhilesh’s poll managers and SP district unit chief Havaldar Yadav said that the party decided to cancel the meetings because it suspected that the local administration was looking for technical grounds to ensure that the meetings do not happen.

However, district election officer Shivakant Dwivedi said the cancellation was entirely SP’s decision. The local administration, he added, had issued permissions for the meetings and they were still valid.
Around 6pm on Thursday, Havaldar issued a press release stating that because the “grand alliance could not be defeated”, the government was pressuring institutions to find reasons “to cancel elections here on any technical ground”.
“Because of this, pre-issued rates prescribed for expenditure during elections were revised at a time when the polling date is two days away. In view of such intentions of the government and local administration, all four public meetings of Akhilesh Yadav scheduled on Friday have been cancelled,” the release stated.
When TOI contacted Dwivedi, he said, “There is no new notification from EC regarding revision of rates prescribed for expenditure by candidates. Candidates are given one month to submit their expenditure report after polling. No one has sought any report on the expenditure by any candidate. The district administration had already issued permissions for all events of SP and they still stand.”

Dwivedi denied the role of the election or district administration officials in this regard. As the news of the cancellations spread, a large number of workers started thronging the election offices of the party as well as that of senior leaders. Havaldar did not talk to the media on the issue.
The in charge of Akhilesh’s central campaigning office in Azamgarh, Munir Ahmed, claimed that rates prescribed by EC for campaigning expenditure had been given in written after nomination filing. However, the revised rates were given to them verbally, due to which the party sniffed a conspiracy.
He said that Akhilesh will not visit Azamgarh and party leaders and workers will do door-to-door campaign peacefully.
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