The Hindu : PM's niece may become CM if BJP wins in Chhattisgarh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 27, 2003

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National

PM's niece may become CM if BJP wins in Chhattisgarh

By Aarti Dhar

JAGDALPUR (CHHATTISGARH) NOV. 26 . The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today hinted at the possibility of Chhattisgarh having the first woman chief minister if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the State.

Though Mr. Vajpayee did not name anyone in particular, the hint was obviously towards the women's wing chief of the state BJP, Karuna Shukla, who also happens to be the Prime Minister's niece and has been active in Chhattisgarh politics. However, she has not been given the ticket this time.

Mr. Vajpayee walked up to the mike a second time to make a special mention of this. "We have projected women chief ministerial candidates in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and if we win in Chhattisgarh, we will give the State it's first chief minister,'' he said amid a thunderous applause from the crowd.

Earlier, he appealed to the `misguided' youth who had adopted the naxalite ideology to join the national mainstream by saying that democracy had no place for violence. "We have to fight terrorism and violence, whether within or outside the country,'' he said adding that naxalites must change their ideology because society itself had changed for better. Some parts of the Bastar division are affected by the naxal movement and the naxalites have already given a call for boycott of the poll.

Candidates of all the 12 reserved Assembly segments in the Bastar division and both Members of Parliament were present at the rally besides the Chhattisgarh BJP president, Raman Singh. In the 1998 elections, the BJP had got only one seat in the region and the MLA, Shyama Dhruva, had defected to Congress along with a dozen MLAs. This time round, the party expects to win at least eight seats and the Prime Minister's rally was to target the tribal voters.

Calling upon the people to vote for a change to `change the face' of Chhattisgarh, Mr. Vajpayee said the State could not be revolutionised unless the leadership was honest and dedicated. Hitting out at the State Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, albeit indirectly, he said, they had played enough politics with the State and its people and now it was time to elect the right people. Speaking about local issues such as lack of roads, power, and employment, Mr. Vajpayee also mentioned about his party's achievements at the Centre in the past five years and said they were, however, unable to make any revolutionary changes in the Constitution because they lacked majority in Parliament. Defending the countrywide river-linking project, he said it was necessary and the Congress should have thought of it during its 50 years of rule and thus "saved us from droughts and its after-effects".

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