The Hindu : The LS as an `election platform'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 20, 2003

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The LS as an `election platform'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 19. Not only did the Bharatiya Janata Party use the no-confidence motion debate in the Lok Sabha to tom-tom its achievements, it also sought to turn the televised debate into an election platform for two of its members who are being projected as chief ministerial candidates for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan — Uma Bharati and Vasundhara Raje Scindia.

While Ms. Bharati used her time to comment on the machinations of her arch rival and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, without actually naming him, Ms. Scindia dwelt at such length on the state of affairs in Rajasthan that it made many in the House comment on how she had turned the discussion into a no-confidence motion against the Rajasthan Government. When she persisted, despite efforts from the Congress benches to drown her voice in a chorus of protests, the Congress leader, Shivraj Patil, stood up to remind her that this was a no-confidence motion against her party's Government at the Centre, and not the Rajasthan Government. Not one to give up, Ms. Scindia continued in the same vein; arguing that she had every right to speak about Rajasthan as the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, had spoken about it in her opening speech. And, she went on; practising her lines for the electoral battle that is round the corner.

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