External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on Monday said the Election Commission should go beyond countermanding the polls or ordering repolls in several booths in Chapra, from where RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav faced the Union Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pradap Rudy.
He told a press conference here that it was 'unfortunate' that in Bihar booth capturing and electoral malpractices had become the order of the day.
The Election commission should go beyond conducting repolling or countermanding the polls there by taking action against those who indulged in electoral malpractices, he said.
Supporting Rudy, he said cases had been filed against the minister days after the polling took place. From this, one could understand that cases had been foisted against him, Sinha said.
He said the opposition had no other valid points for campaigning and was harping on the 'secularism'.
'It is a fight between the development and so called secularism. It is a fight between a positive and negative campaign', he said.
Asked whether the BJP was rattled by the exit poll results, he said 'BJP is not fragile like the Bombay Stock Exchange. We have planned our programmes taking all aspects into consideration, including the Exit polls results', he said.
{{/usCountry}}Asked whether the BJP was rattled by the exit poll results, he said 'BJP is not fragile like the Bombay Stock Exchange. We have planned our programmes taking all aspects into consideration, including the Exit polls results', he said.
{{/usCountry}}Sinha said for the first time in the political history of the country, the Muslim minorities wanted to give BJP a chance to form a Government.
Muslim leaders had spoken how the opposition had explioted the community and cheated them, the Minister claimed.
The opposition was 'devoid' of any programme and picked up secularism as their poll plank and they did not have any other programme but to 'oust' National Democratic Alliance' from power, he said.