India's Election Commission Friday ordered a state government to prosecute a top aide of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee blamed over a stampede for gifts that killed 22 people a week before voting.
Twenty women and two children died Monday in Vajpayee's home constituency of Lucknow when organisers of a birthday party for the premier's campaign manager Lalji Tandon distributed free saris, the traditional clothing of Indian women.
The autonomous Election Commission ordered authorities in Uttar Pradesh state, of which Lucknow is the capital, to register a bribery case against Tandon.
"The police has been asked to register a case that relates to bribery during elections," panel spokesman A.N. Jha said, adding that the watchdog has also asked Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party to explain its links to the incident.
Uttar Pradesh authorities at the urging of the poll panel Friday transferred Lucknow's police chief Rajiv Ranjan Verma and an administrator, Aradhana Sharma, in connection with the stampede, state chief secretary V.K. Diwan said.
The Election Commission has the power to bar any candidate including Vajpayee from contesting elections for six years if it holds the contestant responsible for voter inducement.
Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs including Vajpayee to the 545-seat national parliament.
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