NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES US ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The face off between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on the petrol pump allotment issue is poised to intensify with the former deciding to strike back at the latter by exposing 'irregular allotments' made during the Congress regimes, a Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament told rediff.com.
He said the central leadership was sending instructions to the state units to compile a list of Congress members who had received allotments.
He also indicated that the list of Congress leaders who had been allotted petrol pumps in Madhya Pradesh was likely to come out within a couple of days.
"Congress stalwarts and notables feature in the Madhya Pradesh list, including at the top-most echelons of the state government," he claimed.
"This (the decision to come out with list of Congress beneficiaries) was decided on Tuesday morning at the BJP parliamentary party meet where Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani told the party members that they need not be defensive on the issue and should be prepared to reveal the lists of Congress members who were allotted petrol pumps during Congress regimes," the MP said.
He said the deputy prime minister indicated that the sheer volume of petrol pump allotments during Congress regimes would dwarf what has been revealed in the past few days.
Advani, he pointed out, also had summoned a meeting of senior party leaders in his chamber in North Block on Monday to discuss a strategy to counter the opposition campaign on the issue.
BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Jaswant Singh, Arun Jaitley, party chief M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar attended the meeting, he said, adding that Swaraj, the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, took the lead in advocating an offensive strategy against the opposition.
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
