NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Thursday reserved its orders on the show cause notice issued to the Bharatiya Janata Party as to why it should not be de-recognised for releasing and distributing compact discs containing inflammatory material as part of the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

The Full Commission comprising Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami and Commissioners Navin Chawla and S.Y. Quareshi reserved orders at the conclusion of daylong arguments from counsel for the BJP and the complainants — the Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Jan Morcha.

Party contention

According to the BJP spokesman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the party questioned the jurisdiction of the Commission to de-recognise political parties for alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

On the demand made by the Congress that the Commission not allow certain leaders to contest the polls, the BJP argued that the Commission could not prevent a person from contesting the polls if he was otherwise qualified to contest.

The Commission could not add new disqualification norms as the Constitution had already set out criteria for eligibility of MPs and MLAs.

He said: "In our arguments, we told the Election Commission that it is primarily responsible for free and fair conduct of elections. It should not get into ideology, secularism or pseudo-secularism or act like an ombudsman of ideology."

Poser

The BJP also questioned the Commission for not taking any action against Congress president Sonia Gandhi or the Congress during the last Lok Sabha polls when she used a helicopter in violation of the norms. Though a show cause notice was issued to the party, nothing was done, thereafter. Similarly when Railway Minister Lalu Prasad was found openly distributing currency notes to voters, no action was taken against him.

On behalf of the Congress, Union Minister and senior leader Kapil Sibal argued that to ensure free and fair polls, the Commission should issue interim directions asking the BJP to tender a public apology for the distribution of the CD.

On de-recognition, he said that since first information reports had already been registered against senior leaders of the BJP, the investigation should proceed and action should be taken in accordance with the outcome of the enquiry.

On behalf of the CPI (M), Nilotpal Basu also demanded a public apology by the BJP. Having disowned the CD, the BJP should also disown the contents of the CD and only then its bona fides could be accepted.

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