LUCKNOW: Chairman of the Congress Campaign Committee Sanjay Singh on Saturday said that the party would observe April 18 as black day and workers would take out a silent procession, demanding rejection of Prime Minister Vajpayee''s nomination for Lucknow parliamentary constituency. He welcomed the Election Commission decision to lodge a case against Lalji Tandon.
Talking to reporters, Singh said that partymen would submit a memorandum to the President demanding that the government lodge cases against those responsible for the death of 21 women and an infant on Monday last in Lucknow. He said that the Samajwadi Party, instead of helping the victims, was trying to save the culprits and that BJP leaders were hand in glove with the function organisers.
He said not only were the poor women killed, but the BJP leaders also treated their corpses with utmost contempt. Singh said that the sari show was organised to make people forget the Prime Minister''s flop show of April 5. Singh was referring to the meeting of Vajpayee and LK Advani in Lucknow which had a thin crowd attendance.
Singh also sought to know the source of the funds the organisers had raised for the sari distribution function at Lalji Tandon''s birthday celebration.

The Congress leader criticised chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav for his partisan role after the tragedy but said that his party had decided not to withdraw support because it would land the state in BJP''s kitty.
On the Congress party''s candidate for Lucknow seat, Singh said Akhilesh Das could defeat the Prime Minister. He said Ram Jethmalani withdrew from the fray because of family problems.

Party spokesman wanted to know why the Prime Minister had not reacted to the decision of the EC so far. He also questioned the propriety of Vajpayee''s decision to allow Tandon to be one of his proposers. Singh said that Prime Minister''s appeal to Jethmalani to withdraw from the fray was condemnable.