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Worry about polls, not relief measures, BJP tells EC

Insisting that 98 per cent of the state was normal, Arun Jaitley, BJP general secretary in charge of Gujarat, told the Press Trust of India: "In some areas relief and rehabilitation may still be required and it must be expeditiously done. The relief commissioners must do their job and the Election Commission its own."

"The EC should bear in mind," he said, "the constitutional requirement of Article 174, which mandates that the next sitting of the state assembly has to be called in early October. The job of the EC is to conduct elections [and] I hope they are able to announce the dates at the earliest."

Commenting on the reported adverse remarks of CEC J M Lyngdoh during his visit to Ahmedabad and Baroda, Jaitley, who visited the state a few days ago, said most of the victims had returned home and trade, business, political and educational institutions had resumed functioning normally.

"It would be a bad precedent to suggest that elections can be deferred," he said. "We have gone through elections during terrorism in Punjab, we have gone through elections and are still going through elections in Kashmir even under the shadow of jihadi guns.

"We have gone through elections with a minuscule voting percentage in Assam and yet elections restored normalcy in Punjab and Assam."

He said the forthcoming election in Jammu & Kashmir would also send a message to the entire world that despite terrorist threats the people of the state were expressing their faith in India's sovereignty through the ballot.

"In comparison, it would be too far-fetched to suggest that elections cannot be held in Gujarat even though the state has been normal for the past several months," he added.

Terming the incident at Godhra and the resultant violence in many parts of the state unfortunate, Jaitley said everyone should remember that 98 per cent of the state remained untouched by the violence.

Asked whether election-related exercises like the preparation of new voter lists had been completed, he said, "The draft electoral rolls were published in February 2002 and the final rolls in May 2002. No wholesale revision is therefore required. If there are individual additions and deletions required, they can be done pending elections as has been done in Jammu & Kashmir."

PTI

Gujarat Elections 2002: The complete coverage

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