NEW DELHI, 17 April 2004 — The Election Commission yesterday ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to prosecute a top aide of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee blamed over a stampede for gifts that killed 26 people.
Twenty-four women and two children died Monday in Vajpayee’s home constituency of Lucknow when organizers of a birthday party for the premier’s campaign manager Lalji Tandon distributed free saris, the traditional clothing of Indian women.
The autonomous Election Commission ordered authorities in Uttar Pradesh state, of which Lucknow is the capital, to register a bribery case against Tandon.
“The police has been asked to register a case that relates to bribery during elections,” panel spokesman A.N. Jha said, adding that the watchdog has also asked Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party to explain its links to the incident.
Uttar Pradesh authorities at the urging of the poll panel yesterday transferred Lucknow’s police chief Rajiv Ranjan Verma and an administrator, Aradhana Sharma, in connection with the stampede, state Chief Secretary V.K. Diwan said.
Meanwhile, hi-tech video raths (chariots) have now been pressed into service by the BJP for active campaigning in Uttar Pradesh. Through these raths, taped speeches and messages of Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani will reach out to the masses in Uttar Pradesh.
“The video raths will be deployed in the areas where senior leaders cannot reach,” said BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan who flagged off three such raths yesterday from his residence in UP.
Exploiting the Gujarat-carnage with full aggressiveness against the BJP-led government, Congress party President Sonia Gandhi accused it of unleashing tension and fear in the country. While addressing a gathering at Kolar, she said the NDA had promised to remove fear and tension in society. “But what happened in Gujarat was a ‘classic example’ of their failure to honor the promise,” she said. She blamed NDA government for increasing hunger and poverty and farmers being in distress.
