The BJP and the Election Commission appeared headed for a showdown after the Varanasi district administration on Wednesday denied permission to the party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, to hold an election meeting in the city on Thursday.
The refusal angered the BJP, which shot off letters to the commission alleging “partisan behaviour” by Returning Officer Pranjal Yadav and declared that senior leaders Arun Jaitley, Amit Shah and Laxmikant Bajpai would stage a sit-in at the Lanka Gate of Banaras Hindu University.
But the Election Commission rejected the BJP’s charge of bias. “Local authorities, the district administration there, who are directly in charge of law and order, have their assessment in the matter,” Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi told presspersons in New Delhi. “The commission does not accept the insinuation of inaction or bias.”
Mr. Modi, who is the BJP’s candidate from Varanasi, was to address two rallies in the constituency, in Beniabagh, a minority-dominated area in the heart of the city, and at Jagat Inter College Ground at Rohaniya on the Banaras-Allahabad road.
While the district authorities gave the go-ahead for the Rohaniya meeting, they denied him permission to address the rally in Beniabagh, citing security concerns.
Mr. Modi’s proposed meeting with some intellectuals in the city and a puja on the banks of the Ganga were also at first disallowed. But late in the evening, the district administration gave permission for them.
Mr. Jaitley alleged that the Returning Officer was interfering in the conduct of free and fair elections.
( With additional reporting by B. Muralidhar Reddy in New Delhi)