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BJP at odds with EC

Modi refused permission for today's rally in Varanasi

Pallab Bhattacharya, New Delhi
Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday appeared to be on a collision course with the Election Commission after the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was refused permission for holding a rally in a crowded area in Varanasi today.
The BJP has accused the Election Commission of being a "mute spectator" to the "highly partisan" role of the local returning officer in denying permissions to Modi for addressing a public meeting in Veeniya Bagh locality.
The poll official cited security concerns in declining permission for the rally. Polling in Varanasi, where Modi is pitted against Aam Aad mi Party candidate Arvind Kejriwal, will be held on May 12 in the final phase of India's staggered parliamentary elections.
Demanding immediate removal of Varanasi Returning Officer Pranjal Yadav, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said he, along with his party leaders including Amit Shah, will hold a sit-in protest outside Banaras Hindu University as well as outside the Election Commission in Delhi.
Jaitley, who has been camping in the constituency of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, made a veiled attack on the three-member Election Commission and said "when weak people sit in high positions, democracy is under threat."
However, the returning officer said permission has been given to Modi to hold his rally at an alternative site on the basis of an application given by a BJP leader. He also said the other programmes of Modi, including the meeting with intellectuals and the 'Ganga pooja' have been granted permission. "They are deliberately making an issue out of it."
But Jaitley rejected his claim saying BJP has not made any request for an alternative site where only 2,000 persons can be accommodated. "We are not out of our mind to seek permission for a meeting of our PM candidate at a place which can accommodate only 2,000 persons," he said.
Jaitley spoke to Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath and wrote three separate letters on the issue, demanding immediate removal of Yadav alleging a free and fair election is not possible in Varanasi if he continues in the post.
"We are totally disappointed with the Election Commission when it sits
as a mute spectator and has not been able to intervene in the issue and for its failure to remove the official...We have no option but to protest," he said.
MODI ON ILLEGAL BANGLADESHIS Sticking to what he said in his earlier meetings, Narendra Modi yesterday reiterated that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh would have to go back, reports The Times of India.
Speaking at an election rally in Krishnanagar of West Bengal, Modi said he would only try to honour the Supreme Court's observation that infiltration was an act of aggression on India. "What the Supreme Court said has to be implemented," he mentioned.
The BJP leader, however, then hastened to add that the case of refugees from Bangladesh was different and that it was the responsibility of all the states of India to rehabilitate them.