Shoe-thrower scribe Jarnail Singh refuses to vote

Journalist Jarnail Singh, who flung a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram, did not vote on Thursday as a sign of protest against parties negating the "essence of the Constitution" and seeking power on grounds of region, religion and caste.

"I'm not voting for anybody. No party deserved my vote. There should be an option to reject all candidates," Singh, whose April 7 act led to the Congress withdrawing riot tainted Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler from the Lok Sabha race, told IANS.

Singh, who was protesting the clean chit given to Tytler and Kumar for their alleged involvement in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, is a resident of Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi constituency.

"My heart is not going with any party... Parties are asking votes for religion, caste, region; nobody is following the essence of the Constitution so I do not think anybody deserves my vote," Singh said.

Asked why he was not voting against the Congress, he replied: "I am not against any political party, it was a protest against denial of justice."

"Political parties are not following the real ethos of our Constitution. They have adopted selective secularism..."

Singh, a scribe with a Hindi newspaper, threw a show at Chidambaram during a press conference. He was immediately taken into custody but was released as Chidambaram declined to press charges against him.

That single act started a trend of sorts with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani amongst those who were targeted with various kinds of footwear.