Tuesday, May 10 2005 14:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today (May 10, 2005) alleged that the Union Railway Minister Laloo Prasad had 'lowered the dignity' of the office of Union Minister by openly criticising two members of the Election Commission of India, a constitutional body.

BJP national secretary, Bandaru Dattatreya, told reporters in Chennai today that the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh should sack Laloo for his action.

He said that it was bad practice for the Union Ministers to make allegations against the Supreme Court Judges and Election Commissioners, who were constitutional authorities. It should not be allowed to continue, he said.

He said that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, if she had any respect for judiciary, should co-operate with the court in Karnataka, conducting trial against her in the wealth case.

Accusing her of adopting double standards, he said that when it came to the question of trial against the seers of Kanchi in the Sankararaman murder case, she had been saying that the law should be allowed to proceed in its due course.

But when it came to her, her counsels in the wealth case had been seeking adjournments on 'flimsy grounds', he said. If she was really innocent, she should prove it in the court without adopting delaying tactics, he said.

Ruling out any alliance with any party in the State, he said that the party would go it alone in the next year's (2006) Assembly polls. The party's poll observer, Arun Jaitley, would have discussions with the State unit leaders in Chennai on May 15 to evolve the campaign strategy, he said.