EC raids BJP's Varanasi office, backs off within hours

Amid high drama on eve of polls, UP police and Election Commission officials today raided BJP office here and seized campaign material, drawing vociferous protest from the party, but within hours "closed" the case.
The search was conducted by the flying squad of police personnel and EC authorities amid a ban on all election campaign activities since last evening for tomorrow's polls in the city that has witnessed a highly charged electioneering.
BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is pitted against AAP's Arvind Kejriwal and Congress' Ajay Rai among others.
The raid at the main BJP office of Kashi region prompted a major protest and sloganeering by the party supporters.

District Magistrate Pranjal Yadav and Special Election Observer Pravin Kumar later told reporters that the Election Commission has decided to close the case as the material was not being used for campaigning.
These items were not being distributed among prospective voters, the officials said.

When asked whether such action would be taken against other parties also, Yadav said that the raid was conducted as per information received by a flying squad and action would be taken on all such information.
Officials said that the raid was conducted to seize election campaign material as it got the information about such items lying in large quantity in the BJP office.

BJP leaders, however, said that these were unused campaign materials and the party was not indulging into any campaign activities.
The seized items included T-shirts, pamphlets, badges, officials said, while adding that some vehicles were also siezed outside the BJP office. One of the vehicles didn't have any number.