Click to play videoLucknow: Less than a month to go before the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the curtains could come down on Chief Minister Mayawati's biggest public promotion campaign yet, that includes the statues of herself and the BSP's election symbol, the elephant.
The Election Commission is likely to take a decision on Saturday on whether to cover up all the statues. A decision will be taken at its meeting on Saturday evening. Several rival parties complained that the statues gave the BSP an undue advantage as they clearly promoted the party.
The model code of conduct states that the pictures of all candidates on public property must be covered during elections. The same logic would apply to statues as well.
Last year, Mayawati had inaugurated the 33-acre Dalit Prerna Sthal or the Ambedkar Park in Noida. Mayawati spent Rs 650 crore for the development of the park, which has several statutes of Dalit leaders.
The park has 24 pink sandstone elephants, 12 life-size statues of Dr BR Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and the UP Chief Minister herself.
The estimated cost of each statue is over Rs 6 crore and each elephant statue costs Rs 70 lakh. In fact Mayawati spent Rs 2500 crores on five such major parks across UP.
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