Scindia Not Keen On Digvijays Job

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Madhavrao Scindia said here yesterday that he was not interested in becoming the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

The issue of my becoming Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister has not cropped up, the senior Congress leader said at a press conference before leaving for New Delhi.

Scindia expressed his disinclination to become Chief Minister after he was asked if he would be willing to take up the post in the state following complaints that the bureaucracy was dominating the state government.

He said that it was the duty of Chief Minister Digvijay Singh to see to it that the bureaucracy was reined in and did not do anything that would hurt the government.

Scindia also called for steps to eliminate the shortcomings in the functioning of the party government in Madhya Pradesh.

He said with assembly elections due next year, the time had come for the party to let the people know about its achievements.

He said that shortcomings, if any, would have to be removed to ensure that the Congress returned to power in Madhya Pradesh after next years Assembly elections.

Asked if he thought that the present Congress set up was competent to win the next assembly elections, he said, I dont see any reason why it should not be able to do so. The former Union minister said that both the Chief Minister and the state Congress president should realise that there was no room for complacency in politics. An agenda for action should be drawn up to ensure that the Congress wins next years Assembly elections, he said.

Replying to questions, he referred to the unity fostered in the Congress by the Dabra spirt of 1993 Assembly elections which, he claimed, had led to BJPs defeat despite the fact that the elections were held soon after the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

He said he and Arjun Singh were not emerging as rival political centres in Madhya Pradesh.

The former Union minister described Arjun Singh as a senior leader with whom he had a good equation that was growing stronger by the day.

Whatever Arjun Singh says carries a lot of weight, Scindia said.

He said the formation of the Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress and the All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) before the last Lok Sabha elections might have been only contributing factors for the Congress defeat.

However, there were many others things, including the functioning of the party and the government which were responsible for the Congress defeat in the parliamentary elections, Scindia said.

The former union minister said he was a firm believer in the fact that the party organisation should not be neglected at the cost of the government.

He said that the results of not having a strong organisation were witnessed during the last Lok Sabha elections in which the Congress lost.

Scindia said he had brought this to the notice of the then party president, P V Narasimha Rao, but nothing was done to improve matters.