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Create Chhatisgarh before assembly poll, CM tells Centre

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh today demanded the creation of a separate state of Chhatisgarh before the assembly election and ruled out his resignation following the Congress defeat in the general election in his state.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, he pointed out that the BJP and its allies had promised the creation of a separate state of Chhatisgarh to be carved out of Madhya Pradesh. ''The assembly election in Madhya Pradesh is due in November... Let them have Chhatisgarh before November and have elections there also''.

Asked if the Congress also favoured the creation of Chhatisgarh, Singh said his party had also made a similar promise in its election manifesto. ''We have already passed a resolution for the creation of Chhatisgarh in the state assembly."

He said he had taken up the matter with Prime Minister A B Vajpayee during their meeting in New Delhi on Sunday. The prime minister told him that the process was on for the creation of Chhatisgarh.

Replying to another question, he said Chhatisgarh would be economically viable. But a set procedure would have to be followed and the Constitution would have to be amended for creating Chhatisgarh.

On his party's poor performance in the Lok Sabha poll, Singh said he had already accepted responsibility for the defeat. The Congress defeat could be attributed to three main factors: the people in the state voted for Vajpayee and not the BJP; the Congress was not able to build an adequate organisational mechanism for each constituency; and the list of candidates was announced too late, with little time left for campaigning, he added.

Asked if he was prepared to resign owning up moral responsibility for the party's defeat, the chief minister said, ''I have already owned up my responsibility as the legislature party leader, but all other decisions are taken by the party high command. I have already started making preparations for the assembly election.''

On Madhavrao Scindia's statement at the All India Congress Committee session on Monday that state ministers could not be made a scapegoat for the party's defeat, Singh said he did not wish to join issues with a senior party leader and CWC member, but one would have to find out why the party was continuously losing in constituencies where some ministers had won previously by huge margins.

To Arjun Singh's allegation that internal sabotage had led to the party's defeat, Singh said it should be investigated by the AICC.

Singh did not agree with a suggestion that corruption in his ministry had led to his party's defeat. If corruption had been an issue, Sukh Ram, from whose house a large amount of money was seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation, would not have been an important minister in the BJP government in Himachal Pradesh.

However, he said his government was not taking any case of corruption lightly.

UNI

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