The Hindu : New Delhi News : MLAs to approach Advani against leadership

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 08, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

MLAs to approach Advani against leadership

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 7. Internal wrangling within the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party seems all set to intensify with some party legislators planning to approach the party president, L.K. Advani, to complain against the failure of the Legislature Party leadership to pin down the Sheila Dikshit Government during the recent Budget session of the Assembly. The MLAs also feel that the leadership worked in a "clandestine'' manner to bail out the Government on important matters.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Jagdish Mukhi, has come under fire from this group of legislators. There is also a move afoot within the party to seek a change of guard in the legislature party leadership as there is an urgent need to inculcate fresh blood to renew the tirade against the Sheila Dikshit Government and its policies. The bickering within the BJP Legislature Party came out into the open during the recently concluded Assembly session as the party stood divided on various issues.

Observers are of the view that after launching an attack against the Chief Minister and her Government on the issue of corruption, the BJP leadership in the Assembly changed the agenda for some strange reason. This created a serious divide within the MLAs with the former Minister, Harsharan Singh Balli and Karan Singh Tanwar staying away from the entire session against the "indifferent style'' of functioning of Mr. Mukhi and the Chief Whip, Sahib Singh Chauhan. The issue of one-man-one-post is being raised within the legislature group with MLAs seeking the removal of Mr. Chauhan from the post of Chief Whip after his nomination as Secretary of the State unit of the party.

During the session, there had been boycott of BJP Legislature Party meetings and the lunch hosted by the Leader of the Opposition for his colleagues. "It is time to assess the whole situation and the performance of Mr. Mukhi during the past six years. He has failed to take on the Government during this period and there is not a single occasion when he took a stand and stuck to it. It is time to look for new faces and give a new direction to the party as the resentment against the Sheila Dikshit Government is on the rise and there has to be somebody to capitalise on this situation,'' a party leader remarked.

It is understood that Mr. Mukhi's stand on various issues has come in for sharp criticism by his own colleagues. For instance, Mr. Mukhi and Vijay Jolly are understood to have clashed on the issue of discussion on the liquor policy and public distribution system as the latter was not allowed to attend the House and take part in the discussion. The logic extended by Mr. Mukhi was that when the Leader of the Opposition had been expelled, the others should not attend the House.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi

News Update

Stories in this Section