The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sheila willing to step down

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Saturday, Apr 23, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sheila willing to step down

`I don't think that I would like to be an unwelcome guest'

NEW DELHI: Deeply hurt by the attack launched against her by her own partymen, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today indicated her willingness to step down if the Congress High Command asked her to do.

``Eventually what will happen in a week's time or four days' time or three days' time (when the AICC acts on the report sent by its observer Ashok Gehlot on the April 19 Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee meeting), I cannot assume or presume. I will go by what happens because I don't think that I would like to be an unwelcome guest,'' she told NDTV in an interview.

Asked whether she would battle it out in the face of the opposition against her by her own partymen, the chief minister said, ``No, I don't think I am that kind of a person. I would not like any fights.''

Referring to the opposition against her, Ms Dikshit said, ``They have a point of view. They have their own aspirations. They have their own problems, which I may or may not have been able to attend to.''

She said she had written to Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the issue and was waiting to hear from her.

Ms Dikshit said she was not upset at not having got a response from Ms Gandhi so far and added, ``I do feel that the position of a Chief Minister, whoever it may be, has to be protected, it has to be respected because it is a sacrosanct institution.''

She said she was ``deeply hurt'' at the attack launched on her government by party MLAs at the DPCC's executive committee meeting. ``I feel deeply hurt. There's no denying that. I sometimes wonder whether people are being fair to me?''

The Chief Minister also said she has written to Ms Gandhi about some Central leaders backing the dissent against her. ``And it's something which I think everybody saw,'' she added.

Saying she was upset about the dissidence coming out into the open, Ms Dikshit said, ``Yes, that's unfortunate. I can only tell you that it is an internal matter and in a party which has won with a thumping majority... it's a large family. So, these kinds of things keep happening. We will deal with them as they come.''

Ms Dikshit, however, defended her action of walking out of the meeting, saying, ``There is a viewpoint that I should not have walked out. But I feel that I should (have). I did the right thing because I was just too deeply hurt and also shocked because I did not expect this. The agenda of the meeting was something different.''

Earlier, claiming that there were some people present at the meeting who should not have been there, the Chief Minister said at any cost, the dignity of the meet should have been maintained. — UNI

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