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Cong. not for statehood to Delhi: Khurana

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JULY 16. The Delhi BJP president, Madan Lal Khurana, today alleged that the Central leadership of the Congress party was bent upon "sabotaging'' the grant of full Statehood to Delhi and sought a public statement from the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, that her party would support the Statehood Bill when it is introduced in Parliament.

Addressing a Press conference here, Mr. Khurana said the Congress leadership had always been against giving full Statehood to Delhi and the same situation is bound to occur this time also. The BJP leader claimed that during his interactions with a number of Congress MPs, it had come to light that the Congress was not in favour of giving Statehood to Delhi and it would hamper the process during the Parliament session. If the Congress is honestly in favour of Statehood for Delhi, then the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and Ms. Sonia Gandhi should come clean on the issue.

The BJP leader was also critical of the Chief Minister for demanding status at par with Pondicherry which was still a Union Territory. This is a clear indication that Ms. Dikshit does not want full Statehood for Delhi and is now creating confusion in order to sabotage the whole thing. It is no secret that it was under pressure from the BJP that Congress Government in Delhi was forced to bring forward a resolution in the Assembly for granting Statehood to Delhi. "It was only after we threatened to make this a major election issue did the Congress wake up to the situation and took action. Now they are back to their old ways and want to sabotage the whole issue of full Statehood by giving conflicting viewpoints,'' he added.

Mr. Khurana warned that any retraction of the stand for full Statehood by the Congress would mean betrayal of the people of Delhi and expose the real face of the Congress party.

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