The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury on Saturday welcomed the Election Commission's direction to cover the statues of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and those of elephant (the symbol of the Bahujan Samaj Party), installed across U.P. ahead of elections to the Assembly.
Speaking to journalists here during the launch of a book on Lalbagh Botanical Gardens and the contribution of erstwhile rulers of Mysore Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali to the development of the gardens, Mr. Yechury said, “Election Commission is a constitutional body having responsibility to conduct fair elections. Whatever steps they [the Commission] have taken is good for democracy.”
Commenting on the Trinamool Congress and the Congress, he said the differences between the two parties had always been there. “They came together to defeat the Left. They also took the help of the Maoists. It is the TMC's calculation to force early elections expecting the National Democratic Alliance to come to power. The TMC held the Railway Ministry in the previous NDA regime that it may want again.”
