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BJP will demand MP chief minister's resignation also

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to demand the resignation of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh once the resignation of his Orissa counterpart Janaki Ballab Patnaik is accepted by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Speaking to this correspondent, BJP spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu pointed out that there was "scarce, qualitative difference" in the recent developments in Orissa and in Madhya Pradesh some time back. He emphasised that nuns had been criminally assaulted in these two Congress-ruled states. Therefore, if the chief minister of one of these states resigned owing moral responsibility, there was no reason for the other (Digvijay Singh) not to follow suit, Naidu pointed out.

Significantly, Congress spokesman Ajit Jogi tried to fend off reporters' questions, on the rationale behind the party high command's reported overture to Patnaik to tender his resignation when Digvijay Singh did not relinquish office even after nuns had been allegedly raped in Jhabua and other districts recently.

While drawing attention to Congress spokesman Jogi's assertions that comparison could not be made between the Orissa and Madhya Pradesh developments because "no two situations are identical", Naidu pointed out that the Congress had fallen in a self-laid 'trap' by trying to draw a line between the developments in the two states. He said, "Therefore, we will demand the resignations of the Madhya Pradesh chief minister on moral grounds once the Congress high command accepts the resignation of the Orissa chief minister."

Meanwhile, senior Congress leaders indicated that the party president was consulting her legal and political advisors whether it would be the right step to accept the Orissa chief minister's resignation. Patnaik had given no indication that he would tender his resignation, and even close aides at Orissa Bhavan in the capital expressed surprise over his resignation this morning.

It is understood that the Congress high command has been constrained to ask for his resignation because of the ruling coalition's (at the Centre) counter-offensive that there should not be different yardsticks to 'measure' communal and criminal violence in the states. That is why the Congress president appears in a quandary over accepting Patnaik's resignation, as that would result in an all-round clamour for Digvijay Singh's resignation also.

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