Author: Agencies
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: August 13, 2002
Coming down heavily on chief election
commissioner J M Lyngdoh, the BJP today said he was apparently acting at
the "behest" of the Congress and other Opposition parties which wanted
the Gujarat assembly elections to be delayed.
"There is a public perception that
he is acting at the instance of Congress and other Opposition parties.
He is adopting different yardsticks for Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir,"
party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra told reporters here.
Asserting that it was binding upon
the commission to hold elections as per Article 174 of the Constitution,
he charged Lyngdoh with undermining the Constitution. "This is not done,"he
said.
Malhotra accused the CEC of using
"intemperate" language against senior officials in Gujarat and said it
was not expected of him to say that whosoever was asking for elections
was "mad". He said while the commission was prepared for elections in Jammu
and Kashmir, it was describing the situation in Gujarat as "muddy".
Accusing Lyngdoh of adopting a different
yardstick for Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, Malhotra claimed that the
situation in Gujarat was "much better" and there were hardly 3,000 people
in refugee camps against three lakh J&K refugees. "Polling can be conducted
in refugee camps in Gujarat," he said and demanded early elections to end
the atmosphere of uncertainty. Asked if BJP trusted the commission, he
said" we hope (the) EC acts fairly."
