New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani on Sunday said corruption was the main issue of the Lok Sabha elections and wanted the Government to trace black money stashed abroad.
Advani demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raise in the upcoming G20 summit at London the issue of India's black money stashed in foreign banks.
"I want to demand today that Prime Minister raise this issue strongly in the G-20 summit and ask to be provided with details of the Indian wealth abroad," the BJP's prime ministerial candidate told reporters here.
Advani said if the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance gets the people's mandate they would take up the matter on both legal and executive level and pursue it in every possible manner.
Advani, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, said that he had written a letter to the PM regarding black money hidden abroad and got an "evasive" reply from the Home Minister.
BJP leaders have rarely focused on corruption during the election season and Advani’s statements may be a plan to take the focus of the Varun Gandhi, say political analysts
Varun, the BJP candidate in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, is under judicial custody for giving anti-Muslim speeches. Varun denies giving hate speeches but the BJP appears to be defensive on the issue.
Advani said the BJP had taken the correct stand by retaining Varun as its candidate and admonished the Election Commission for advising the party to drop him. "As far as I remember, this is the first time in the last 60 years that the Election Commission has asked a party not to give ticket to someone. No rule or the constitution gives such a right to the commission," he said.
However, Advani asked party candidates to be careful in their speeches. "I would expect every candidate to exercise restraint in his utterances," the BJP leader said at a press conference in New Delhi.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS.)
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