CD won't help BJP gain power in UP: SP

Lucknow, Apr 9 (UNI) Charging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with trying to divide society for electoral gains, the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) said law will take its own course in the controversial CD case in which the EC have filed a named FIR against BJP president Rajnath Singh.

Talking to mediapersons here, SP MP and former advocate general of the state Virendra Bhatia said BJP tried to politicise the CD issue to gain electoral mileage. ''BJP tried to gain political advantage by distributing the CD. But when they were caught on the wrong foot, they went a step ahead to gain advantage of the prevailing circumstances,'' he alleged.

Reacting on the offer of BJP president Rajnath Singh to offer his arrest to police in the CD case, he said the guilt of the party leadership in the issue was forcing them to take such steps.

He claimed that after failing to gain power following demolition of Babri mosque, BJP was trying the same technique to come to power in the state by distributing inflammatory CDs. ''But people of the state have seen through their plan...the electorate would reject them in the ongoing elections,'' he added.

He said police investigations took time and as per a Supreme Court ruling, police could not arrest a person merely because his name appears in an FIR. ''As it is, I have no control over police and the matter relates to the EC and police both,'' he said.

At the same time, the former AG charged the EC with a partisan attitude against the SP. ''EC only finds fault with the SP while other parties get away with their misdeeds,'' he said joining SP supremo and Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's sentiments on the issue.

Meanwhile, All-India Shia Minority Teachers' Association and UP Bar Council today appealed to their members to vote for the Samajwadi Party in the elections. The two bodies claimed here that CM Mulayam Singh had been the only politician to consider the long pending demands of teachers and lawyers.

UNI