The Hindu : Vajpayee promises a woman CM for Chhattisgarh

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

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Vajpayee promises a woman CM for Chhattisgarh

By Aarti Dhar

JAGDALPUR (CHHATTISGARH) NOV. 26. The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today hinted at the possibility of Chhattisgarh having its first woman Chief Minister if the Bharatiya Janata Party comes to power in the State after the upcoming elections.

Though Mr. Vajpayee did not name anyone in particular, the hint obviously was 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 its first woman Chief Minister," he said amid thunderous applause from the crowd.

Earlier, he appealed to the `misguided' youth who had adopted 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 the better. Some parts of Bastar division are affected by the naxal movement and the naxalites have already called for boycott of elections.

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 the 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. Indirectly hitting out at the State Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, he said we had played enough politics with the State and its people and now was the time to elected the right people. #Speaking primarily about local issues like lack of roads, power, and employment, Mr. Vajpayee also mentioned his party's achievements at the Centre in the past five years and said the BJP was, however, unable to make any revolutionary changes in the Constitution because it lacked majority in Parliament.

Defending the ambitious river-linking project, he said it was necessary and the Congress should have thought of it during their 50 years of rule and thus saved us from droughts and its after-effects.

Calling upon the people to make Chhattisgarh a `model State' and neighbour's envy, the Prime Minister said the Centre had tried to correct the State Government from `going on the wrong path' but now it was the turn of the people to do so as voters had the power to turn the tables on anyone, at the same time appealing to them not to sell their votes to political parties since the future of the State and Centre was linked to it.

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Vajpayee promises a woman CM for Chhattisgarh