New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on August 31 demanded an explanation from Congress president Sonia Gandhi on what made separatist Kashmiri leader Shabir Shah retract his statement on participating in the coming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections after meeting her on August 30.

"We demand an explanation from Gandhi about what advice she offered to Shah of the Jammu and Kashmir-Democratic Freedom Party (JK-DFP) which resulted in the sudden reversing of his stand and refusing to participate in the elections," party spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters.

"Congress owed an explanation to the people of India and should make public the details of the discussion the party president had with Shah which made him reverse his stand as it was a sensitive issue of national importance," he said.

Naqvi hit out at the Congress for adopting "double standards" in objecting to BJP Mahila Morcha demonstrating outside Gandhi's residence against the murder of a Congress corporator by another colleague while it had demonstrated outside the residence of a Cabinet minister merely on the basis of an accusation made by the spouse of a police official wanted in a murder case.

PTI