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It is up to EC to decide on poll timing: Narendra Modi

Modi downplayed the significance of a nine-member EC team visiting the state to study the law and order situation.

"The EC sends such teams at the time of general elections, assembly elections and even at the time of by-elections," he told reporters after a 75-minute meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Modi said he apprised the Prime Minister of the political situation in the state and sought a relief package for Gujarat in view of a truant monsoon.

Significantly, Gujarat Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari had a separate meeting with the prime minister.

This was Modi's first visit to the capital after the EC's decision to send a team to the state, which was recently rocked by communal violence.

Besides the prime minister, Modi called on Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh and BJP president Venkaiah Naidu.

He also paid a courtesy call on President A P J Abdul Kalam.

Apparently attacking the Congress, he said that some political parties were indulging in vote bank politics by harping only on the violence after the Godhra incident.

In his 45-minute meeting with M Venkaiah Naidu, Modi apprised the BJP president of the prevailing situation in the state and the preparations for the assembly elections.

He was confident that the party would return to power in the state and that the government had taken all steps to restore normalcy.

Later, Naidu also met with former chief minister Keshubhai Patel and party general secretary Arun Jaitley to discuss the situation in the state.

PTI

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