The Hindu : 'Some Gujarat Ministers, MLAs want change in seats'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 11, 2002

National

National

'Some Gujarat Ministers, MLAs want change in seats'

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD Nov. 10. The BJP general secretary, Arun Jaitley, today admitted that some Ministers in the Narendra Modi Cabinet and party members of the dissolved Assembly had been looking for a change in their constituencies to contest the December 12 elections to the Gujarat Assembly.

Talking to media persons here, Mr. Jaitley, who attended the on-going meeting of the State election committee in Gandhinagar for the selection of candidates, however, claimed that such demand was "marginal'' and any change would be decided by the party depending on the "winnability'' of the candidates.

The "contributions'' of individual members to the party and their "winnability'' would be the main factors for the selection of candidates and there would be no other "general criteria'', he added.

He declined to comment on the report that Mr. Modi himself was seeking a change in his constituency and said that his seat would be decided by the party's central election committee.

He denied that the former Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, was "unhappy'' with the party and claimed that Mr. Patel would be present on the same dais with Mr. Modi and the Union Textiles Minister, Kashiram Rana, at the `gaurav rath yatra' meeting in Surat on Tuesday. He said Mr. Patel had been attending the election committee meetings and had expressed no grievances over the selection of candidates.

Mr. Jaitley said the State party was expected to finalise its recommendations in the next few days to be presented before the central election committee for approval and the final list was expected to be announced before the process of filing of nominations starts on November 18.

He refused to speculate on the number of seats likely to be allocated to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the Bajrang Dal and said it would be known only when the final list was announced.

Mr. Jaitley criticised the Congress for asking the Election Commission to ban the VHP from campaigning in the elections and said the Congress could not win the confidence of the people by playing a negative role.

He described the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's talk of "coalition'' as the party's "sign of nervousness.''

It made no difference to the National Democratic Alliance which would contest the elections separately, but it was against the Congress' own "Pachmarhi resolution'', he said.

On the State Congress president, Shankarsinh Waghela's demand for a ban on the VHP campaign, Mr. Jaitley said just as the BJP was not scared of the Congress taking out as many yatras as it wanted, the latter also should not worry about the BJP or the VHP taking out yatras.

Hinting at the Congress' earlier demand for a ban on the gaurav yatra, he said the Congress have to win the confidence of the people by its own actions, not by playing the negative role of demanding bans on one yatra or the other.

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