04-23-2005, 08:35 PM
http://www.indiareacts.com/nati2.asp?recno=3270
Sharma, Yusuf may replace Sheila Dixit
23 April 2005: Despite leading the Congress party to victory in the Delhi assembly elections, chief minister Sheila Dikshit is being eased out by the party high command, and her likely successors could be either state president Ram Babu Sharma, transport and power minister Harun Yusuf, or education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely.
The anti-Dikshit camp which attacked her in a meeting for the cityâs growing power and water crisis leading to her walkout wants a successor who is ranged against her, someone like Sharma, who could meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi while the CM could not, but the Dikshit side wants her choice of person, who is Lovely, on the plea that Delhi has a large, growing Punjabi population.
The spanner in the works has been thrown by the Union urban development minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is plugging for Yusuf, winning over Soniaâs political secretary, Ahmed Patel, in the game, on the argument that the Congress should have its first Muslim chief minister.
But there is a deeper ploy here, according to Congress stalwarts, who say that once Yusuf becomes CM, Ghulam Nabi cannot be moved to Jammu and Kashmir as chief minister, under the half-term deal with the PDP, because two Muslim CMs cannot be made successively, after a short gap.
With a massive construction boom expected for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, accompanied by staggering kickbacks, Ghulam Nabi wants to remain the man in charge, as the urban development minister, while as J and K chief minister, there would be a continuous high threat to his life, and scope for administration would be severely limited, it both being a small state and with a heavy presence of security forces.
âIn effect, because he does not want to go to J and K, Ghulam Nabi has joined the dissidents against Sheila Dixit, and wants Yusuf as CM, so his way is cleared to continue in Delhi,â said a Congress stalwart.
Sharma, Yusuf may replace Sheila Dixit
23 April 2005: Despite leading the Congress party to victory in the Delhi assembly elections, chief minister Sheila Dikshit is being eased out by the party high command, and her likely successors could be either state president Ram Babu Sharma, transport and power minister Harun Yusuf, or education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely.
The anti-Dikshit camp which attacked her in a meeting for the cityâs growing power and water crisis leading to her walkout wants a successor who is ranged against her, someone like Sharma, who could meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi while the CM could not, but the Dikshit side wants her choice of person, who is Lovely, on the plea that Delhi has a large, growing Punjabi population.
The spanner in the works has been thrown by the Union urban development minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is plugging for Yusuf, winning over Soniaâs political secretary, Ahmed Patel, in the game, on the argument that the Congress should have its first Muslim chief minister.
But there is a deeper ploy here, according to Congress stalwarts, who say that once Yusuf becomes CM, Ghulam Nabi cannot be moved to Jammu and Kashmir as chief minister, under the half-term deal with the PDP, because two Muslim CMs cannot be made successively, after a short gap.
With a massive construction boom expected for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, accompanied by staggering kickbacks, Ghulam Nabi wants to remain the man in charge, as the urban development minister, while as J and K chief minister, there would be a continuous high threat to his life, and scope for administration would be severely limited, it both being a small state and with a heavy presence of security forces.
âIn effect, because he does not want to go to J and K, Ghulam Nabi has joined the dissidents against Sheila Dixit, and wants Yusuf as CM, so his way is cleared to continue in Delhi,â said a Congress stalwart.