SP may use govt machinery to influence poll: Shah

Reiterating its charge of rigging in the last two phases of election in UP, the BJP on Saturday urged the Election Commission to ensure the deployment of Central forces at polling booths in the remaining two phases of polling in the state.

During an interaction with media persons, BJP’s UP in-charge Amit Shah said rigging took place in booths during the last two phases of election in UP. He said the Election Commission should deploy Central forces at polling booths in the state in the remaining phases of polling. Shah expressed the apprehension that the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh might misuse the government machinery to influence the poll process in last two phases of polling in the state.

“We demand deployment of paramilitary forces at all booths in UP to avert booth capturing by SP activists,” Shah said.“The state police and administration might not be able to stop booth capturing by SP men because of the influence of the state Government, hence deployment of central security forces in UP in the last two phases of polling on May 7 and May 12 is a must so that voting is not affected,” the BJP leader said.

He said the last two polls held in UP on April 24 and April 30 were influenced by SP and incidents of booth capture by SP workers were also witnessed.“We had earlier complained to the Election Commission about such incidents and will file a complaint again today,” Shah added. Earlier, BJP’s national media coordinator Ravi Shankar Prasad had also made a similar complaint. 

Slamming UPA Government’s move to appoint a judge to head the snoopgate probe, Shah said the ‘dirty tricks department’ of the Congress was behind it.“It is the Congress dirty tricks department that is behind the move to appoint the judge at the fag-end of the government’s term,” he said at a press conference here.Shah alleged that the Manmohan Singh dispensation had no “constitutional and moral authority” to appoint a judge to probe the snooping allegations “as the government is going”.

It is alleged that the illegal surveillance on a woman in Gujarat in 2009 was done at the behest of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Shah was the Minister of State for Home during that period.There have been allegations that Shah himself was in regular touch with the officials involved in the alleged snooping. The Gujarat Government has maintained that not only the father of the woman in question but she herself was also aware that the state agencies were tracking her and were “thankful” for it.

“The moral authority of the UPA Government has ended. It has no constitutional authority either. Still, if they are doing this, they do not know why their government is going,” Shah said.On Friday, the government had said a judicial commission to probe ‘snoopgate’ allegedly involving Modi will be in place before the lok Sabha poll process comes to an end on May 16.The government had decided four months back to set up the inquiry commission but the process got delayed reportedly because of its inability to find a judge, who was ready to take the task.

The government had announced that the Commission, to be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge or a retired Chief Justice of a high court, will also look into charges of snooping on Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh by the previous BJP government when he was in the opposition as well as the leaking of the call data records (CDR) of Jaitley in Delhi.The Union Cabinet on December 26, 2013 took the decision under the Commissions of Inquiry Act under which the Modi government had already set up a similar panel.

There were reports that as no retired judge was willing to head the probe commission, the UPA government was mulling the option of changing the terms of reference for the commission by incorporating a provision that will allow the government to appoint a sitting judge of a high court.Shah alleged that the UPA government has conveniently “forgotten” the reports of scams like CWG and Adarsh and was now resorting to such “unconstitutional move”.