Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president and spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday said that his party has welcomed the Supreme Court verdict on the voter’s right to reject candidates during polls.
“We welcome the order of the honourable Supreme Court. In fact, the BJP had been demanding a debate on electoral reforms for several years now in the lok Sabha but the Congress party chose to put the issue on a ‘back burner,” he said while addressing a news conference here.
Naqvi was in the city to attend a meeting of the party’s Minorities Cell besides holding discussions on the status of Assembly poll preparations in Chhattisgarh.
He said that the BJP had earlier formed a Committee headed by former Deputy Prime Minister and Senior party leader lK Advani to propose electoral reforms to the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre.
“The Committee had been insisting from the Centre that there was a pressing need for a Bill on electoral reforms to be passed in Parliament. However, the Centre chose to discuss the nuclear deal in Parliament instead of the core issue of electoral reforms,”Naqvi said.
When asked if the BJP had carried out any survey of its MPs and MlAs to know their criminal background in the context of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s statement trashing the proposed ordinance of his party to shield convicted MPs from the Supreme Court order on banning them from contesting polls, he remarked : ‘The BJP never felt the need for any survey as since 1999, all party candidates have to declare their assets and criminal history if any before they are allowed to contest polls.’
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s statement that the proposed ordinance allowing convicted MPs to contest polls was ‘nonsense’ and must be torn and thrown in the bin, Naqvi said that the Congress Vice President for the first time registered his presence by making a statement which implied that whatever his party is doing, he has nothing to do with it.
‘A person (Rahul) making such a statement on trashing the proposed ordinance has put a serious question mark on the country’s constitutional framework’, he said.
Naqvi said that Rahul Gandhi’s statement also sent a signal that the ‘posting on deputation’ of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was over which is laughable.
‘In a Government where nothing happens without Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s consent has the Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi saying the proposed ordinance must be torn and thrown in the dustbin’, he said.
‘Congress party believes in the ‘use and throw policy’. It is a history sheeter party. It gets its work done and then leaves people in the lurch,’ Naqvi said.‘This is not just about the proposed ordinance on convicted MPs.Why did not the Congress party protest when the coal scam was unearthed, he asked.
Regarding poll preparations in Chhattisgarh, Naqvi said that the booth committees have already been formed and all the central party leaders would campaign in the State.