MHA: Doval not present during poll BJP meet

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday rejected reports about National Security Adviser Ajit Doval attending a BJP-RSS electoral strategy meeting at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence.

The denial came a day after the CPM approached the Election Commission seeking an inquiry into media reports about Doval's presence in a meeting chaired by Singh and attended by BJP and RSS leaders  to discuss Assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya  and  Nagaland on Sunday.

"There is a well-established practice of the home minister holding regular morning meetings to review national security and public order. These meetings are attended by senior members of the internal security establishment," the MHA said.

"As per this practice, such a meeting was also held on January 14 at the home  minister's residence, which was attended by the regular members of the group, including the NSA. These officials did not participate in any other meeting at the Home Minister's residence on that day," it said.

The Sunday meeting on elections at Singh's residence was attended by RSS senior functionary Krishna Gopal and BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, who oversees his party's affairs in the north-east, among others.

Citing agency and media reports, CPM Tripura Secretary Bijan Dhar had written to Chief Election Commissioner A K Jyoti, saying "presence of any person holding very important position like that of National Security Advisor is not only undesirable and objectionable, it is a glaring instance of blatant misuse of administration by the ruling party at the Centre for garnering political mileage in the elections."