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The Bharatiya Janata Party said on Thursday that it would not refrain from targeting Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh.
"There is no restriction on criticising the chief election commissioner. Does the EC alone enjoy the privilege of criticising others?" BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said in New Delhi.
Reacting to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's observation that Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani had failed to disapprove the BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's attack on the Election Commission, Malhotra said, "There are numerous instances when the Congress has also indulged in criticism of the EC."
On Lyngdoh's observation that the situation in Gujarat was nasty, Malhotra said, "It is a nasty statement in itself. The situation there is better than in most other states. It will, therefore, not be proper for the election commissioner to make such sweeping statements."
He urged the Congress president to "restrict" some of her chief ministers from staging dharnas outside Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence. "If the central ministers also stage dharnas outside the chief minister's residence in their respective state capitals what sort of a situation would emerge?" he wondered.
The Election in Gujarat: The Complete Coverage
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