The Hindu : Testing times ahead for Sheila

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 07, 2003

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Testing times ahead for Sheila

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI DEC. 6. For Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the days of a soft Opposition or rather what was usually referred to as a "loyal Opposition'' are over. Among the Opposition members in the new Assembly are people with substantial legislative experience and could make the going difficult for the ruling party.

The bigwigs who have made it to the Assembly include the maverick politician and Nationalist Congress Party candidate, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, the former BJP Minister, Surinder Pal Ratawal, the BJP think tank, Vijay Jolly, the former BJP chief, Mange Ram Garg, the vocal Tughlakabad MLA, Ramesh Bidhuri, the BJP Delhi Cantonment MLA, Karan Singh Tanwar, the veteran BJP leader, O.P. Babbar, the former BJP Ministers, Harsharan Singh Balli, Jagdish Mukhi and Harsh Vardhan. Also not to forget the vocal two-time MLAs, Sahib Singh Chauhan and Jai Bhagwan Aggarwal. There is also the lone Janata Dal (S) MLA, Shoaib Iqbal, who is an old hand at testing the ability of the Ministers.

With the strength of the BJP increasing from 14 to 20 in the new Assembly, it is clear that an interesting tug of war is in the offing between the ruling party and the Opposition. Many of those who have won are known to be aggressive and good at raising issues that concern the common man. It will be a tough task for the ruling party benches to counter their attack without proper homework and adequate preparation, a senior Congress leader remarked.

This has also raised the question over the constitution of the Council of Ministers by the Chief Minister. It is no secret that some of the Ministers of the Sheila Dikshit Cabinet had performed badly in the previous Assembly and were unable to take the pressure of the job inside and outside the House. "All this has to be kept in mind. The new Council of Ministers should have educated and qualified people as Ministers in order to send across a message that Congress was serious about going ahead with its development agenda. There will be a lot of pressure inside and outside the House to perform and there should be no place for inefficient and non-performing MLAs,'' another Delhi Congress leader asserted.

Mr. Bidhuri, a former MLA, is known to raise very relevant issues inside and outside the House. He is best remembered for putting both the ruling party and the Opposition in the dock during his last stint as the Janata Dal MLA between 1993-98. "I will have my task cut out. Only those issues relating to the people and Delhi will be raised. There will be no unnecessary disruptions for the sake of opposition. However, we will not let the Government or the Ministers off the hook if they do not behave responsibly,'' said Mr. Bidhuri.

As for the BJP, in all likelihood Mr. Mukhi is expected to be once again take over the mantle of the Leader of the Opposition if the Moti Nagar MLA, Madan Lal Khurana, prefers to resign his Assembly seat, which is likely to happen given the circumstances and the nature of defeat suffered by the BJP. Mr. Mukhi will also be under pressure to perform, as not only the party leadership but also party bigwigs inside and outside the House will watch him closely.

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