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Chauhan elected leader, Uma boycotts meeting Bhopal: Amidst a whole lot of drama and protest, the Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Legislature Party on Monday elected Shivraj Singh Chauhan as its leader, paving the way for him to succeed Babu Lal Gaur as the Chief Minister of the State. However, furious over BJP Parliamentary Board's decision to elect Chauhan as the replacement of incumbent Chief Minister Babular Gaur without consulting legislators, former Chief Minister Uma Bharti decided to boycott the meeting and stormed out of it along with 17 legislators supporting her. Claiming that the decision to elect Chauhan without consulting state legislator was unconstitutional, Bharti announced to go on a protest march to Ayodhya. Earlier, after conclusion of the meeting, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley announced that the members of the State Legislator Party elected Chauhan unanimously as the next Chief Minister. Announcing the decision, Jaitley said that out of the 172 members, one had expressed his unavailability for certain reasons, thus out of remaining 171, 154 members voted to elect Chauhan as their leader. "A total of 171 members signed on the attendance register, out of which 17 later decided not to participate in the proceedings and walked out, but the rest 154 actively participated in the election and unanimously chose Shivraj Singh Chauhan as their leader," Jait;ey said after the meeting. Chauhan will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Bharti's supports violently protested party's move, damaging chairs and other properties outside the BJP headquarters here. The police had to lathicharge to get the situation under control. Uma Bharti braces herself for BJP battle Earlier, arriving in Bhopal for the BJP legislature party meeting Bharti launched a tirade before the media over a Dainik Bhaskar report that claimed that she had told BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitely over the phone that she was going to commit suicide because she had not been appointed as the chief minister in place of incumbent Babulal Gaur. Taking exception to the newspaper report that claimed that she had called Jaitely at 2.30 a.m. on Sunday, Bharti said this sort of yellow journalism was a direct attack on her credibility as a senior leader of the party as well as a disciplined soldier of the right-wing cause. "I have come here to attend the BJP Legislature Party meeting as a member as well as a leader. The report that I called Arun Jaitely at 2.30 a.m. is without foundation and has no basis whatsoever. I am a leader of the BJP in my own right. I do not need to make phone calls at odd hours, past midnight, to plead or defend my case," said an extremely disturbed Bharati. She accused the Dainik Bhaskar management of being after her for several months as they wanted to settle some past scores that had shown the paper in poor light. She said the paper should have cross-checked with her whetrher she had called Jaitely or not. She also said that if Jaitely had something to say on the matter, he should come clean and reveal whatever he had said. Soon after the meeting, Chauhan was likely to call on Governor Balram Jakhar to stake claim to form government, the spokesman said adding he is expected to be sworn in on November 29. Ignoring firebrand leader Uma Bharti's claim for the top post, BJP Central Parliamentary Board had yesterday announced Chauhan's appointment as the next Chief Minister replacing Gaur. The meeting attended among others by former Prime Minsiter Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Party President L K Advani had also sought to placate Bharti by appointing her as BJP General Secretary. An OBC like Bharti, the 46-year-old Chauhan, would be one of the yougest Chief Ministers of the Country. However a train, in which Shivraj Singh Chauhan was travelling, has stopped in Jhansi after an anonymous person called up police and said that a bomb had been planted in it. |
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