Lalu rejects demand for resignation

Poll panel begins probe

tna December 23, 2004Although Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishnamurthy said in Chennai that appropriate action would be taken against Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad if charges of violation of the model code of conduct were proved, it was clear that no one in the RJD was losing any sleep over the issue.

RJD must reply by 3 pm on December 24 how Lalu Prasad misused his official position for the rally that was planned for December 23, how he came to be distributing currency notes after the announcement of the Bihar Assembly polls and why the RJD should not be de-recognised as a party that had violated the model code of conduct.

However, RJD supporters today were busy marshalling evidence to prove that video clips were not admissible evidence, that it was not Prasad distributing the money and that in any case, as Prasad is prone to stopping trains and distributing money, the incident had taken place some time ago and was extrapolated by his rivals after the announcement of the polls, to defame him.

The police are conducting a parallel investigation. Meanwhile, the misuse of official machinery is another charge that Prasad's lawyers will have to disprove.

Prasad, himself conscious of the publicity and political mile-age the incident would get him, was blas