Lal Kishenchand Advani, leader of opposition and former president of Bharatiya Janata Party, questioned the Election Commission's decision to have FIR registered against Rajnath Singh,party president, on release of a CD which had no official sanction of the party. He was speaking at a function organized by the party to mark the 28th Foundation Day of BJP which was launched on April 6,1980."We would deal with the issue when the EC commission takes a final decision. A delegation of the party led by vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi met the commission to explain our position. When there is nothing provocative in the CD how can you register FIR against the president of the national party," he asked in an aggressive tone meant to send clear signals to the election commission.
He went back to 1984 and gave examples of blatant posters printed in the newspapers by the congress party which asked people if they were not scared when they sat in a taxi driven by a Sikh."
The law is clear that the action can be taken if there is a continued wilful defiance by the party despite reminders from the commission to withdraw the concerned material. Here we have withdrawn the CD even before commission came out with its order," he clarified.
He said that the party was likely to return to power in the next general elections. " We won in Uttarakhand, Punjab. We are going to win Delhi Municipal elections tomorrow and it will be followed by Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh next year. BJP is on a march and nobody can stop it from coming back to power," he declared amidst applause from senior party leaders and workers.
He said that his party wanted to know from Prime minister's office as to what happened to the case registered against one Mr Rao who had been posing himself as advisor to prime minister. " I understand that Rs 2 crore in cash and some incriminating documents were found from his residence and subsequently the case was hushed up.
We want to know from the prime minister's office why the case was hushed up particularly when the FIR was registered against Rao at the instance of PMO. We will raise the issue in the parliament," he said.
He questioned what he called appeasement of the Muslim community for vote bank politics. "Tamancha, tijore aur tushtikaran are being applied to win elections in Uttar Pradesh", he pointed out.
He had no doubt that the party would do well in the state assembly elections. Western Uttar Pradesh goes to polls on April 7.
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