Advani accuses Congress of communalising UP polls

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani Sunday accused the Congress of “deliberately communalising” the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, a day after the poll panel served notice on Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma for promising a sub-quota for Muslims.

“Never before have the Congress party or its leaders communalised an assembly election as consciously and deliberately as it has done in UP in 2012,” Advani said in his latest blog post.

Advani also said suspicion expressed Saturday by party leader Arun Jaitley that the remarks of Verma and earlier Law Minister Salman Khurshid were pre-planned would prove to be true if Verma too (like Khurshid) does not face any action.

“If Verma also does something like what Khurshid has done (tendering an apology), and escapes removal from the ministry, then Jaitley’s suspicion would be proved correct that these statements are not individual acts of defiance of a constitutional authority but part of a planned poll-oriented conspiracy by the party’s poll managers,” wrote Advani.

He also cited Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s recent statement that the Batla House gunfight with terrorists was fake gunfight to support his view.

Advani contended that the three events last week had been unprecedented in the history of Indian elections.

These are the poll panel’s notice to Khurshid, his defiance of it and the poll panel’s shock over it, he said.