Varun gandhi stands by BJP

NEW DELHI: Less than 12 hours after the Election Commission found Varun Gandhi guilty of violating the model code, BJP rallied behind the
Gandhi-Nehru family scion and questioned the poll panel’s locus standi in seeking his removal as a candidate for the Lok Sabha polls.

A meeting of senior BJP leaders held here this morning at L K Advani’s official residence decided unanimously to back Varun Gandhi to the hilt. The implication was clear: there was no question of dumping the young leader as its candidate from Pilibhit. EC, by asking BJP to drop Varun Gandhi from its panel of Lok Sabha candidates, had not only exceeded its brief but was also being partisan, party leaders felt.

The issue has the potential of snowballing into a major political row ahead of the elections. While BJP leadership brought the poll panel under its firing line, the Pilibhit candidate’s cousin Priyanka Gandhi on Monday opened another front against him.

“Well, it may be very sad to see him saying those comments on the television and what can I say? I’d advise him to read the Gita properly and try to understand it properly,” she told newspersons during a visit to her mother’s Lok Sabha constituency, Rae Bareli, on Monday. His remarks, she added, were against the principles that her family had stood for, lived and died for.

Ms Gandhi’s remarks took most political observers by surprise as the two families had so far refrained from attacking each other in the public. It was the first time this line of control had been violated.

BJP retaliated by advising Priyanka Gandhi not to politicise their family tiff. “In any case, this country wants to rid itself of this family’s stranglehold,” BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said here on Monday. BJP has already disassociated itself from Varun Gandhi’s provocative remarks. Senior party leaders cautioned Lok Sabha candidates to be on guard and comply with the model code of conduct. “We’ve advised all our candidates to exercise restraint and moderation, and give due respect to the model code of conduct,” party general secretary Arun Jaitley said here this afternoon.BJP brass, however, was clear on rejecting EC’s advice to the party to drop Varun Gandhi from their list of Lok Sabha candidates. Adhering to the
suggestion was also ruled out completely on the ground that such a move would have an adverse impact on its core Hindutva constituency at a time when elections were round the corner.

The party, therefore, questioned the poll panel’s authority on embarking upon such a course of action. “The power to advice as to who should be the party’s candidate and who should not be the candidate does not rest with EC,” Mr Jaitley told reporters.

The BJP leader argued that “debarment and disqualification of candidates are strictly covered under Article 102 of the Constitution. The ultimate effect of which is upon conviction in an offence for two years and more”. He wondered how could EC make such a suggestion when even a chargesheet had not been filed in the case. “What EC can’t do directly, it cannot do indirectly,” Mr Jaitley contended. The BJP leader said political parties were putting up candidates convicted of terrorism under TADA. They had been convicted under section 302 of IPC in some cases. “Yet EC had refused to act against them.”

The man at the centre of the controversy simultaneously trained his guns at poll panel for not giving him a fair deal, and alleged that it had been “pressurised” into making a “hasty” decision. The BJP candidate from Pilibhit said EC action was in “utter disregard of the principles of natural justice”