'Ganging of parties on BJP worst appeasement'

New Delhi, Apr 9: Expressing anguish over political parties baying for it's blood at a time when the election process in Uttar Pradesh was on, the BJP today said the parties were ganging up for achieving the worst kind of appeasement.

The BJP which responded before the Election Commission to the complaints of Jan Morcha and Bahujan Samaj Party this morning was asked by the EC to appear again on April 11 to respond to the complaints of Congress, Communist Party of India about the release of controversial CD by its Uttar Pradesh unit on April 3.

The BJP said the controversial CD had not been approved by the BJP leadership. It was not produced by the BJP, displayed or distributed in the polls, the party added. The CD was put by someone in the party office in the press kit. Realising the mistake immediately clarified it was not part of its campaign material.

State Spokesman Manoj Mishra had been removed from his responsibilities forthwith.

BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad regretted the political parties were trying to gun for the party using the EC's shoulder by mounting pressure to derecognise a political party under a provision for violation of Model Code of Conduct. The recognition of a political party ensures it a right to get a reserved election symbol, a sign of its entity before an average voter. Deprivation of this symbol in the mid-way amounts to shifting the goal post and directly impinged conduct of free and fair elections.

The EC in its order dated February 19, 1992 had held it had no powers to cancel/withdraw the registration of a political party while dealing with Mr Arjun Singh v/s BJP and the opinion was confirmed by the Supreme Court.

He said the BJP was of the view the EC had no power to cancel the registration of a political party after granting it. It can do it only when a political party obtains registration by 'fraud or forgery'. Since the BSP's complaint is not in this regard, the petition should be dismissed, the BJP said.

The BJP delegation was represented by BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who filed the reply with two party functionaries Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad. Mr Prasad said the Congress 'shamelessly used Shah Bano route' to beg votes of a religious group and went against the Constitution providing for Muslim reservation in Aligarh Muslim University and Andhra Pradesh.

''Union Minister Kapil Sibal who wanted to occupy Arjun Singh's slot, will meet the same fate and the people of Uttar Pradesh will show the Congress its place in the elections,'' Mr Prasad said. He refused to answer questions regarding Mr Navin Chawla, one of the Election Commissioners hearing the case. The BJP had openly sought his removal from the Commission in the past.

As far as the legal aspects were concerned, experts of the BJP said the EC could use Section 16 A, dealing with Election Symbol Order 1978, for deregistering a party for model code violation. The experts said the Election Commission has no powers to withdraw the registration under the RPA Act, passed by Parliament.

At best it has powers to reprimand a political party and to countermand elections, sources added.

Inwardly, the BJP is happy about the controversy as all political parties are ranged against it. Such kind of polarisation, ahead of an important election, like the UP assembly polls will help the BJP.

UNI

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