LUCKNOW: Expressing apprehension that voters could be influenced through announcements in the budget, BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to instruct the Centre to present it only after the completion of voting in all the five states going to the polls in March.
“The Election Commission should instruct the Central government not to present the general budget on February 1 and just as 2012, it be presented only after the completion of polling on March 8,” Mayawati said in a party release here.
“Voters can be influenced through the budget and thereby free and fair elections can be affected,” she said.
Mayawati’s plea to the poll watchdog came moments after Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi announced the poll schedule for five states and said the commission was examining the representation of various political parties for not allowing the presentation of the budget during the poll process.
The BSP supremo also asked the EC to maintain a hawk-eyed vigil on her rivals — the BJP, SP and the Congress and ensure strict compliance of the model code of conduct as these parties were in the “habit of flouting” the rules.
Further, she said the BSP would contest the polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand on its own. The former chief minister said this was being done so as not to compromise the interests of the Bahujan movement.