Bangalore: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday termed The Caravan magazine’s interview with Swami Aseemanand as “fictitious” and labelled it a Congress “conspiracy” to stop the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s march to Delhi.

BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi suspected the credibility of the magazine and questioned why the whole issue was timed just two months before the elections.

She said it is clear that it is nothing but a Congress conspiracy. They have done many things to implicate the BJP, be it Ishrat Jahan case or the Gujarat riots. Swami Aseemanand’s lawyer too issued a statement denying that his client had given an interview to the magazine concerned.

The Congress, which is hand-in-glove with the Aam Aadmi Party, has been raking up old issues to divert the attention of the public from real problems such as corruption, price rise, and involvement of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her family members in several cases, including the AgustaWestland deal, she claimed.

Addressing presspersons here, Ms. Lekhi said allegations against RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is a politically motivated design by the Congress. The Congress knows that they have no answers on burning issues such as unemployment, continuing insurgency by China, accidents in the Indian Navy and ill governance by the Manmohan Singh government. Therefore, these diversionary tactics are being deployed by them to stop the march of the BJP in the coming elections to the Lok Sabha, she said.

She alleged that the Election Commission of India has not followed the due procedure of law while allotting a symbol to the AAP on the eve of elections. The Congress and the Election Commission had favoured the APP during the elections to Delhi. The Election Commission denied the party symbol to BJP leader Uma Bharti when she floated her own party in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP spokesperson said.

Asked whether she was questioning the credibility of the Election Commission, Ms. Lekhi said: “Unknown to law it has happened and the Congress and the commission have to provide answers.”