INLD accuses BJP of using CBI to stop Chautala

Haryana's main opposition party, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Friday accused the BJP of misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to get the bail of its president and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala cancelled.

INLD general secretary Abhay Singh Chautala, while addressing rallies in Haryana Friday, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had got rattled by the response from people being evoked by Chautala at his political rallies in the last few days.

"The BJP, like the Congress earlier, misused the CBI to get the bail (of Chautala) cancelled so that he could not address more political rallies. The BJP has got unnerved by the support that the INLD is getting," he alleged.

Haryana's 90 assembly seats go to polls Oct 15.

The Delhi High Court Friday directed Om Prakash Chautala to surrender at the Tihar jail Saturday, instead of Oct 17, holding he had violated conditions of the bail granted to him by addressing political rallies.

The former chief minister is serving a 10-year prison term after his conviction in a teachers' recruitment scam by a CBI court in Delhi January last year. He was later granted bail by the Delhi High Court after he pleaded that he was under medical treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon.

Abhay said that the electorate in Haryana will teach a lesson to the BJP and the Congress on Oct 15.

"From now, every single voter in Haryana is Om Prakash Chautala. They will ensure victory of the INLD," he said.

--Indo-Asian News Service

js/vd