BJP win cheers Chhattisgarh

During the campaigning, the Congress had accused the BJP of not being sincere in fulfilling its last year’s promise for the creation of a separate Chhattisgarh state. However, the BJP leaders argued that its government was pulled down by the Congress before it could take up the Bill. Amid allegations and counter-allegations, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during his election tour to Chhattisgarh had assured that if voted to power, his party would present the Bill in the first session of the 13th Lok Sabha.

A report from Raipur quoting Union Minister of State forSteel and Mines Ramesh Bais, who made a hat-trick from the constituency with his victory this time, said his top priority would be to see the statehood formation Bill introduced in the first session of Lok Sabha. Senior Congress leader V.C. Shukla demanded that the Chhattisgarh Statehood Bill should not only be introduced during the first session of Lok Sabha but it should also be ensured that the Bill was passed at the earliest as there was no dispute on this issue.

He suggested that the proposed Chhattisgarh Bill should be delinked from the “contentious issues” of Uttarakhand and Vananchal. Shukla, who is the convenor of the Chhattisgarh Rajyasangharsh Morcha, said any move for clubbing the Bills for creation of these three separate States would not be acceptable. Former Chief Minister Motilal Vora said the Centre should also provide a special financial package for a separate state. “Now the BJP should not make any excuse for delaying the formation of the Chhattisgarh state over which there is nodispute,” he said.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidates have won even from those tribal constituencies from where the Congress was expecting to stage a comeback, apparently indicating that Vajpayee’s announcement to bring the Bill during the first session of Lok Sabha was received well by the voters of Chhattisgarh.

Not only had the Congress tally been reduced by one seat in these elections, two of the party stalwarts — Motilal Vora and former State Congress president Parasram Bharadwaj — had to suffer defeats from Rajnadgaon and Sarangarh constituencies respectively.