UP cops spoil BJP's mass arrest plot

New Delhi: As the EC put off the hearing on the controversial CD issue on Monday, BJP President Rajnath Singh and senior leaders including L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi courted arrest in lucknow.

The leaders marched in a procession to the city’s Hazratganj police station demanding they be arrested in the CD case.

However, the police refused to arrest them and said an FIR was not a reason good enough to take leaders under detention.

The party members insisted they wanted to court arrest in the FIR filed against Singh and UP leader Lalji Tandon in the CD case.

Earlier, the leaders including Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar, Kesrinath Tripathi and others assembled at the BJP headquarters and went in a procession to the police station.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad – who is among the three leaders fighting BJP’s case - alleged that the CD row was the worst form of appeasement politics.

“All political parties are involved in CD investigation. They have approached the EC to prove their secularity. The people UP will answer them,” said Prasad.

However, BJP party yet again washed its hands off the CD and also told the Election Commission it has no power to cancel the party’s registration.

BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was quoted as saying that the request for de-recognition of a major national party can make a “mockery” of the election process.

"It is extremely dangerous for democracy if the Election Commission were to assume the law to decide as to which party is to be allowed to contest elections effectively, and which party is to be prevented from so contesting," Naqvi was quoted as saying.

In its separate replies to the EC in response to BSP and V P Singh-led Jan Morcha, which sought saffron party's derecognition in the wake of the CD controversy, the BJP said that the provisions of Representation of People's Act (RPA) had no provision for cancellation or withdrawal of registration.

SJan Morcha leader and former PM, VP Singh said that apart from de-recognising BJP, the Election Commission should inquire into the party's funds.

(With PTI inputs)