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Advani denies commenting on EC's Gujarat mission

"I had not made any comment. I talked to some people and different versions have come in different papers," Advani told the Press Trust of India.

He was referring to media reports on Sunday, which quoted him as having questioned the commission's visit to assess the law-and-order situation.

BJP media cell joint convenor Siddharth Nath Singh shot off a letter to editors of three New Delhi newspapers describing the reports as a "classic case of fiction writing".

"In his fifty-minute speech Advani did not refer to Gujarat and the chief election commissioner. Amongst the various questions in the interaction that followed, a question was asked about some people who adopt double standards about elections in Gujarat and those in Kashmir.

"While answering all questions collectively, Advani merely made a one-sentence reference to the question by reminding the questioner that in Assam governments have been formed after two to three per cent of voting in some areas. There was no reference to the chief election commissioner or other such matters reported," Singh said.

Meanwhile, reacting to Advani's reported remarks, Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, "It is unfortunate that no less a person than the deputy prime minister has sought to attack the Election Commission."

PTI

Gujarat Elections 2002: The complete coverage

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