Vajpayee worried about poll violence

Voicing concern over the growing violence in elections, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday said incidents like these pose a threat to democracy.

Vajpayee was speaking at a meeting organised to mark the death anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay, one of the founding members of Jan Sangh, at the Bharatiya Janata Party's office in New Delhi.

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"We have chosen parliamentary democracy for ourselves. Votes are being cast and decisions are being made through ballot. But why this violence," Vajpayee asked, adding that the solution lay in following the ideals of Upadhyay.

"We need to follow Upadhyay's philosophy of integral humanism," he said.

The senior BJP leader added that "through voting we have the power to change a regime so we must ensure that it is done peacefully."

Citing Bihar as an example, Vajpayee said, "We should understand the reason for the increase in violence and try to curb it."