Seshan said, ``The BJP's continuous attack on me on flimsy issues amply shows that they are getting frightened by the overwhelming response I have got from people during my week-long electioneering in the constituency.''

Countering the BJP's charge that he had tarnished the image of a constitutional authority like the Election Commission of India by jumping into the electoral battle, the former CEC sought to know why the BJP had fielded former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) T N Chaturvedi in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh? ``Did the BJP not realise then that the party was sending wrong signals to constitutional authorities like the EC in thecountry by fielding the former CAG?''

Seshan also ridiculed the BJP's charge that he was contesting the Gandhinagar seat on the Congress ticket as he was ``power hungry''.

``If former bureaucrats like Chaturvedi join the BJP and contest the general election on its lotus symbol, they become holy cows. But, when people like me join the Congress and fight the elections on its ticket, they are dubbed power hungry,'' retorted the former CEC. He also reminded the BJP that it was their party general secretary, O Rajagopal, who had approached him in the last elections.

Seshan pooh-poohed Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya's demand that he announce a list of ``controversial'' persons who donated to the trust set up by the former CEC.