Wednesday, August 10 2005 19:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) today (Aug 10, 2005) told the Election Commission that it was "discriminating" against it based on "pre-conceived notions and presumptions".

A delegation of RJD MPs, who met Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon, also expressed concern about the sharp fall in voting percentage from the Assembly polls of 2000 to those held earlier this year.

RJD President and Railway Minister Laloo Prasad was not part of the delegation.

In a memorandum, RJD said, "There are reasons which compel us to believe that most of the acts of the Election Commission of India (ECI) during the Assembly elections 2005 appeared to have been guided by certain pre-conceived notions and presumptions including the one that we get the mandate not because of the popular support of the people of Bihar but by misusing the administrative machinery and using muscle power."

It said the EC seemed to have been influenced by a campaign by a section of "elite intelligentsia" to malign the image of Prasad and the party.

The party accused the EC of following different norms in Bihar even for replacing officers considered unsuitable.

"In such situations in other States, the Commission usually asks for a panel of officers from the State Government. But in Bihar, the Commission ordered transferring and posting particular officers by name. Why so? Why this discrimination against us," the memorandum asked.