Raid at BJP office in Varanasi on poll eve

VARANASI: A day before polling for the high stake contest here, Uttar Pradesh police and election commission officials today conducted search at BJP's regional office in the city and seized campaign material, prompting strong protest from the party.

A flying squad of the state police and EC swooped down on the party office amid a ban on all election campaign activities since last evening for the polls, where BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is pitted against AAP's Arvind Kejriwal and Congress' Ajay Rai among others.

Officials said that the action was taken to seize election campaign material as it had got information about such items being sent in large quantity from the BJP office here in the Sigra locality, despite a ban on poll campaign in place.

BJP leaders, however, claimed that these were unused campaign material and the party was not indulging in any campaign activities.

The seized items included T-shirts, pamphlets, badges, officials said, while adding that they found these products being transported from the BJP office.

The party leaders countered this with claims that the unused products were being returned to their respective manufacturers.

They alleged that the latest incident further proves the administration and election authorities' "partisan" approach against BJP and linked the raid to the local administration's denial of permission to Modi's rally here on May 8.