Lal, a 63-year-old former IAS officer, was arrested on Thursday after the Legislative Assembly sentenced him to two days imprisonment for breach of privileges and showing contempt for the legislature. Speaking after his release from Jail, Lal said, “I am talking to my counterparts in other states. I have already spoken to 10 of them.”

He said the claim of the chairperson of the Privileges Committee, Chandrakant Chhajed, that he had ignored notices and did not reply with his signature was incorrect, as he had done so on January 4, 2008. He said the Privileges Committee delivered its verdict without taking his letter into consideration. “It is wrong to punish a person merely because he did not appear before the Committee,” he said, pointing out that he had always obeyed law and that except in Maharashtra, internal elections of civic bodies were being conducted by the respective SECs in other states.

He reiterated that the punishment meted out to him was “political vendetta” as he had not listened to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and went ahead with placing Latur Lok Sabha constituency under reservation during the delimitation exercise. Referring to Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar, Lal said he respected him, “but he had told me on April 23, 2006, that he was under pressure from the CM.”

When contacted, Chhajed claimed there was no pressure on the Committee from any quarters. “Neither the CM nor any other person has interfered with the working of the Committee,” he said. “The fact that we took two years to complete our work proves that we were not in a hurry. We have given ample opportunities to Nand Lal to clarify his stance, but he chose to show contempt.”

Chhajed said his Committee would begin the process on the original breach of privileges by Nand Lal — for issuing the notification on internal elections in civic bodies — after the conclusion of the ongoing session of the state Legislature. The two-day sentence was given as per a special report of the committee for ignoring notices and showing contempt for the Assembly, he said, adding that though Nand Lal was arrested on Thursday and released on Friday, it was a period of two days as per the jail manual.

The CM, too, when contacted, insisted that there was no question of exerting pressure on Nand Lal over the reservation of Latur Lok Sabha constituency, as he had never contested the Lok Sabha seat from Latur. “I have appointed him as the inquiry officer in several cases, how can I pressurise him to change a constituency’s restructuring?” he asked. Deshmukh lambasted BJP members for criticising the decision of the Committee and pointed out that it included members from all parties. He said Lal’s allegation that the action against him was a political vendetta was “baseless”.

Meanwhile, the Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a resolution that in case the Speaker or any of the members received a notice, summons or letter from the court on the Nand Lal issue, it should be ignored and none of them should attend the court “as the Assembly is a sovereign law making body which is supreme in the state”. The move comes even as Lal petitioned the Bombay High Court, appealing against his conviction. The matter has been posted to April 1 for further hearing.