Wednesday, May 11 2005 16:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Railway Minister Laloo Prasad today (May 11, 2005) met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but still stuck to his demand that the two Election Commissioners should step down in the wake of allegations by a senior bureaucrat L V Saptarishi against them.

"I did not attack the Election Commission. I still stand by my stand that the two Election Commisioners B B Tandon and N Gopalaswami should step down", Prasad told reporters after meeting the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had yesterday (May 10, 2005) fully backed the Commission.

He declined to discuss details of his meeting with Singh. "I met him as he returned from his foreign visit. I enquired about his well being", he said.

Saptarishi had said that the two Commissioners "at the behest" of the then Union Home Minister L K Advani had attempted to countermand the Chapra Lok Sabha poll, in which Prasad was the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate.