The entire Bharatiya Janata Party leadership including the MLAs and State office bearers submitted a memorandum to Governor Acharya Dev Vrat at Raj Bhavan seeking the dismissal of incumbent Virbhadra Singh government and also sought fresh Vidhan Sabha polls. This is in wake of the recent CBI raids on the properties of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and registration of an FIR against him and his wife Pratibha Singh in the disproportionate assets case.
The party delegation was led by former Chief Minister and senior leader Prem Kumar Dhumal here on Monday. All other senior leaders except former Union Minister Shanta Kumar were present and are united against the demand of dismissal of Mr. Virbhadra Singh. Mr. Kumar’s mild mannered demand of seeking Chief Minister’s resignation on moral grounds and his soft corner for Mr. Virbhadra Singh is a well known fact in the political circles here. Differing from the party line he has never demanded the dissolution of the incumbent Virbhadra government after the present crises.
Earlier the party legislative meeting was convened here on Tuesday morning and a strategy was chalked out to build a pressure at the Centre to oust the present government that is led by a person facing serious charges of corruption and money laundering. “We would easily get a two-third majority if the fresh polls are conducted since the Congress has lost the mandate and has proved to be a failure at all fronts,” Mr. Dhumal told media persons after meeting the Governor.
He brushed out the Congress campaign of blaming his party and his family for maligning and exposing Mr. Singh’s misdemeanours. The CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry and the matter was pending before the Delhi High Court on a PIL moved during the UPA government regime. Now the CBI has converted that PE into an FIR and the Congress is blaming the BJP and the government at the Centre for all the previous misdeeds of Mr. Virbhadra Singh. “How is it possible?” asked the Leader of Opposition.On asked if some Congressmen are in touch with the opposition in the State, Mr. Dhumal said, the party is not untouchable but the next course of action would be revealed after some time and reaching at a consensus within the party.
The Shanta Kumar group has already expressed its apprehensions against taking any help of the breakaway Congress group to form a new government here.
Mr. Dhumal also ridiculed the Chief Minister’s attempt to create an impression that he has got a big respite from the State High Court, although the Court has not restrained the CBI from conducting any further investigations.
The State party in charge Srikant Sharma who was also present in the Raj Bhavan has questioned the doubtful silence of AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the issue of serious charges of corruption on Chief Minister.
