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'Constitutional compulsion' to hold elections in Gujarat, BJP tells EC

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI JULY 24. The Bharatiya Janata Party today told the Election Commission that it was now a ``constitutional and democratic imperative that elections be held in Gujarat at the earliest'' and emphasised that Article 174 of the Constitution made the holding of early elections a ``constitutional compulsion'' which the Commission cannot disregard.

A five-member party delegation led by its president, Venkaiah Naidu, met the three Election Commissioners, J.M. Lyngdoh, T.S. Krishnamurthy and B.B. Tandon, for about 30 minutes this morning after which the leaders said the Commission had assured them of an early decision.

The party was at pains to point out that it did not need to and did not want to meet the Election Commission as after the dissolution of the Gujarat Assembly it was, in any case, the Commission's duty to hold elections. However, the BJP wanted to counter the high-pitched campaign by other political parties, especially the Congress, against holding of early polls.

The points it made to the Commission through a memorandum were that the State had returned to normality, elections had been conducted in other States in the past where violence had occurred, and ``if onerous tests of normality'' are used, elections may not be possible in many States.

As expected, the ``example'' of the Lok Sabha elections after the anti-Sikh riots in 1984, the polls in Assam after a massacre in 1980, and Punjab elections even before militancy had completely died down were given in the memorandum.

The delegation members were Arun Jaitely, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Anita Arya (all three BJP general secretaries), and a senior partyman from Gujarat, Ashok Bhatt.

They insisted that Gujarat was as normal as could be — examinations had been held, panchayat elections had been conducted, several festivals and the Jagannath yatra were celebrated peacefully and so on. And finally, there were the legal arguments which virtually told the Commission that it had no option but to hold early elections under Article 174, and that this was a ``constitutional compulsion''.

Strangely, after having dissolved the Assembly (which has not met since April), BJP leaders are also arguing that early elections were necessary so that Gujarat can get a popularly-elected Government, that any delay would be thoroughly undemocratic as it would mean prolongation of ``care-taker'' rule by the Chief Minister with no accountability to the elected legislature.

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