Cabinet to shape Govt strategy on EC’s Gujarat decision today

However, it’s not yet clear what the Government is up to. Even though Law Minister K. Jana Krishnamurthy said that he did not favour the idea of challenging the decision in court, the mood within the BJP is combative.

Though gunning for the Commission, a day after it dashed the BJP’s hopes of early polls, the party did not spell out its strategy. Obviously, it realises that before doing so it has to enlist the support of its allies and launch the battle at the Government level.

Party spokesman Arun Jaitley said here today, ‘‘We will decide our future action in due course and let you know.’’ He clarified that his observations were only ‘‘preliminary.’’ He charged the Commission with creation of a ‘‘constitutional anomaly’’ and felt that it should ‘‘realise the consequences of the situation created by it’’.

The EC, he said, has disregarded ‘‘the primacy of the mandate of Article 174. It is an obligation of every constitutional authority to act in aid of the Constitution. Regrettably, this has not happened.’’