'EC must curb rising misuse of religion in politics during polls'

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday expressed concern over the "increasing" use of religion in politics during elections and said the Election Commission must curb this worrying trend.

Her remarks came a day after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the assembly elections in the state will be an 80 per cent versus 20 per cent one, alluding to the roughly 20 per cent Muslim population.

"In the past few years, during the elections, there have been attempts to derive electoral advantage using religion. This impacts the election and the entire country is worried about this, Mayawati told reporters on Sunday.

The Election Commission should take serious steps to curb the narrow politics of selfishness as was evident in the past few years," she added.

Accusing the Adityanath government of foisting a jungle raj through its biased policies, Mayawati also claimed that the BJP will lose the 2022 elections "if there is no misuse of government machinery and there are no discrepancies in EVMs".

The BJP will be thrown out of power this time, provided there is no misuse of government machinery and there are no discrepancies in voting machines," she said while urging the poll panel to keep an eye on it .

Elaborating the reasons for her claim that the BJP will be thrown out of power, Mayawati said, owing to the biased approach of the (BJP) government, a 'jungle raj' of criminals is prevailing.

Due to this, people of every caste and section are feeling very sad. A section of the upper caste, which had in the previous elections voted enthusiastically for the BJP, is feeling very sad, she added, insinuating that even upper caste voters will not support the BJP.

Without naming the Samajwadi Party, Mayawati said, "In the state, there is a party, which is dreaming of bagging 400 out of 403 seats (of the UP legislative assembly) by banking on people who have been expelled from other parties and allying with other parties.