How many elections UPA need to decide on Afzal's clemency:BJP

New Delhi, Dec 13 (UNI) The BJP today took exception to the ''attempts'' of the UPA government to delay execution of Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted in the Parliament attack case.

It reminded the government that it had been over a year that the revision petition of the convict had been rejected by the Supreme Court and the Government owed an explanation on how many more elections it needed to come to a decision on his clemency petition.

BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad said the Congress had used the delay in hanging the convict as an instrument to ''trade for votes'' in the Uttar Pradesh elections in the past and was now repeating it during the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls.

''We don't know how many more elections the government would require to decide on the pending petition. The highest court of the land had rejected the revision petition and a curative petition filed by the convict,'' he said.

On the charge that it was the NDA government which was in power when the attack took place six years ago, Mr Prasad said one should not forget that all the attackers were cornered and killed in the attack and a case against the conspirators was started after investigations.

''The UPA government is in power for the last three and half years and it has not done anything to speed up the justice delivery.

The delay confirms that the Congress is 'soft on terror','' he remarked.

He said it was not fair for anyone to compare the Parliament attack case convict Afzal guru with any ordinary murder convict.

About the Congress' allegation that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had not issued an appeal to voters in Gujarat, Mr Prasad said the Congress spokespersons should do their home work properly and circulated a copy of Mr Vajpayee's message published in today's newspapers in the state.

He evaded a reply to the suggestion that Mr Vajpayee had not issued an appeal in the Saurashtra region so as not to hurt former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, counted as his man in the state.

Mr Prasad said the Prime Minister despite being in office for the last three and a half years was essentially a 'non-political person' and whenever he made a political comment, it often created controversy. The spokesperson said Dr Singh by describing Mr Modi as a taller leader than Leader of the Opposition L K Advani had conceded that Mr Modi had won the polls and his party had no match to counter him.

''The PM talks of reopening the five-year-old riot cases in Gujarat while the CBI is busy in exonerating the accused Congress leaders in the 1984 Sikh massacre, including former union minister Jagdish Tytler.'' UNI MCN/KAS KD ND1802