State BJP leaves Uma return to high command

While state leaders are open to Bharati’s return, they are quick to add it is up to the party high command in Delhi to change the CM again. State party chief Kailash Joshi too has left the decision to Delhi. ‘‘It is the highcommand which asked for her resignation,’’ says Joshi, ‘‘it also accepted it. Therefore, it is upto them to decide whether to send her back to Bhopal.’’

But Gaur has already put his stamp on the new government. For starters, on the day Gaur was sworn in as CM on August 25, he revamped the state secreteriat, replacing all of Uma’s chosen bureaucrats.

Gaur is steamrolling ahead with his plans. Only yesterday, he directed Chief Secretary B.K. Saha to constitute a high-level committee to probe complaints of substandard roads built during Uma’s regime. Saha has already constituted a three-member panel to look into these complaints and would submit a report by September 6.

Gaur’s also frozen transfers for at least three months. The Bharati regime was infamously called the ‘‘transfer Raj’’ with as many as 80 per cent of its 500 IAS and IPS officers shunted. Conscious of the strong coterie around his predecessor, he has even declared that ‘‘I don’t need advisers…my ministers and party leaders are my advisers’’.

Says a senior leader, ‘‘Bharati had refused to take anyone into confidence outside her coterie and group of Sangh ideologues…Today, Gaur consults state leaders before taking any decision.’’ Not surprisingly, Gaur has dropped four of Uma’s Cabinet ministers, who she had chosen in the last expansion, to include three ministers recommended by the party.

‘I’ll step down if BJP leaders ask me to’
BHOPAL: MP CM Babulal Gaur on Tuesday said he was ready to quit to make way for Uma Bharati, a day after Karnataka government announced its intentions to withdraw cases against her.

‘‘I am ready to step down if asked by the Central BJP leadership as I took over the office on its directive,” Gaur said.