ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Sonia lets Digvijay Singh go home happily

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh will not have to quit. At least, for now.

News of Singh's reprieve first came from top Congress sources. A little later, it was confirmed by the man himself who had had a half-an-hour meeting with party president Sonia Gandhi.

"There was no talk of my resignation," the chief minister, who expressed 'full satisfaction' at the meeting but declined to divulge details, told reporters.

Singh denied he was under any pressure to quit in the light of the party's electoral debacle in the state in the Lok Sabha election.

Asked whether he had offered to quit, he avoided a direct reply and said, ''I will abide by whatever Mrs Gandhi says.''

Would he be at the helm in the state during the assembly election, due in November?

"That is for the party president to decide,'' he said.

During his meeting with the Congress president, the chief minister is understood to have appraised her of the reasons behind the party's poor show, and its strategy and prospects for the coming assembly poll.

The chief minister had earlier said it was for Sonia and the Congress Working Committee to decide whether he should continue in office or not.

Owning responsibility for the party's poor performance, Singh earlier told Star News that he had expected better results in the poll. Despite the strong undercurrent in the BJP's favour, he said, the Congress had won in 91 assembly segments and lost by a margin of just 5,000 votes in as many as 80 assembly segments.

Following Singh's statement and rumours that he would have to quit, more than 60 Congress legislators, including 12 tribal ministers of Madhya Pradesh, urged Sonia not to change the state leadership as any such move would be 'detrimental to the interests of millions of tribals, scheduled castes and backward class'.

In a memorandum, they said effective work was being done under Singh's leadership for the upliftment of the tribals and other backwards in the state.

They reportedly claimed that certain vested interests had joined hands and were trying to dislodge Singh one way or the other.

The signatories included Deputy Chief Minister Pyarelal Kanwar, Ministers Jamuna Devi, Bisahulal Singh, Urmila Singh, Prem Sai Singh, Prem Nayaran Thakur, Shiv Netam, Pratap Singh Baghel, Chaneshram Rathia, Madhavsingh Dhruv, Bapusingh Damor, Vanshmani Varma, Ganpatsingh Uike, and some 50-odd legislators.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report