NEW DELHI, 6 December 2003 — It has been a ladies’ show all the way, with the assembly elections throwing up three women as chief ministers — Sheila Dixit (Congress) in Delhi, Vasundhara Raje Scindia (BJP) in Rajasthan and Uma Bharati (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh.
If the BJP had settled for Karuna Shukla, BJP’s national vice-president, as Chhattisgarh’s chief minister, it would have made history by picking all three women chief ministers. (See Edit on Page 12)
Instead Raman Singh has been selected to take over as Chhattisgarh chief minister from tomorrow. His government’s first priority would be to conduct a detailed inquiry into charges of corruption against the ousted Ajit Jogi (Congress) regime.
Addressing a press conference in Raipur, BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu said yesterday, “The new BJP government will conduct a detailed inquiry into the allegations of corruption and maladministration in various welfare schemes implemented by the Jogi government.”
Uma Bharati will be administered oath of office and secrecy as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister on Dec. 8 at Lal Parade Ground in Bhopal, sources said. While Chief Minister Digvijay Singh submitted his resignation to Governor Ram Prakash Gupta yesterday, he has been asked to continue till the new government is constituted.
In Rajasthan, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate would be formally elected as the state unit chief by the newly elected party legislators today in Jaipur. Vasundhara would take the oath of office on Dec. 8 at a public gathering in Amroodan ka Bagh (Jaipur), the open ground which is a popular venue for political rallies.
The extent of the victories in the three Hindi heartland states surprised even the BJP, which rules the country in coalition, but its leaders made it clear that they would not be tempted into early national parliamentary elections.
“There is no proposal to go for early (parliamentary) polls. They will be held as scheduled in September 2004,” Naidu told reporters yesterday.
Meanwhile, opposition members are still banking on politically cashing on the Ayodhya issue. They staged a walkout in the Lok Sabha yesterday after Speaker Manohar Joshi rejected their adjournment notices for suspension of question hour to discuss the Ayodhya issue.
As G.M. Banatwala (IUML) and other opposition members raised the issue, BJP members vociferously protested against disruption of the question hour. The speaker said, “I have disallowed the adjournment notice for suspension of question hour as there is no recent occurrence.”
When the speaker rejected Banatwala’s notice, Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M) sought to know the fate of his notice on the same issue.
As Dec. 6, the anniversary of Babari Mosque’s demolition, happens to be a Saturday, when the house does not meet, the opposition wanted the issue to be discussed yesterday.
CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee said that the opposition would continue to raise the issue as ”we can’t think of any other issue that is festering on the nation’s politics.”
