CD row faces legal wrangles

NEW DELHI: What began as “unmasking of the real face of the BJP” four days ago has now got mired into a legal battle within the confines of Election Commission and into a political street fight in the dusty lanes of Uttar Pradesh.

As the demand from the “secularist” parties like the Jan Lorcha, BSP and CPI(M) gets louder for de-recognition of the main Opposition party, the BJP, the political ramifications of it are becoming more interesting. After an initial confusion, the BJP leadership is now bent upon seizing this as an opportunity and make the best out of a bad situation. The party thinks that in the process it could set an agenda for the remaining six phases of polls in Uttar Pradesh and once again revive the debate on the meaning of secularism.

The BJP has said that the EC had no authority to de-recognise it as a political party. The party has filed a reply, drafted by former law minister Arun Jaitley saying that the party system was the essence of parliamentary democracy. “It is extremely dangerous for democracy if the EC were to assume the law to decide as to which party is to be allowed to contest elections effectively and which party is to be prevented from so contesting.”