BJP to decide on Jharkhand stalemate on Friday

The Bharatiya Janata Party said it would take a final call on the stalemate over government formation in Jharkhand after a meeting of senior party leaders and observers in Delhi on Friday.

"I had only a brief meeting with the party observers in Delhi yesterday as I was flying to Chandigarh. Tomorrow evening, when I will return to Delhi, I will be meeting them and other senior leaders," BJP President Nitin Gadkari told the media on Friday.

A final call on the issue would be taken after that meeting, he said.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has been insisting on a rotational power sharing arrangement with the BJP in Jharkhand which plunged into a political crisis after the saffron party withdrew support to Shibu Soren government in the wake of the JMM leader voting in favour of the United Progressive Alliance during the cut motion in Parliament.

Lashing out at the UPA for price rise, Gadkari said he had shot off his second set of questions to the prime minister on the food grain management issue on Thursday.

However, he is yet to get a reply to his first set of questions on price rise directed to the prime minister last month, he said.

The BJP chief said he had raised the issue of "wastage of food grains worth Rs 58,000 crore in India annually" and accused the Congress-led UPA of having done nothing to solve the problem.

He sought to know from the government its plan for augmenting the storage capacity in the next 25 years and "why there is so much disparity between the price given to the farmers and the price paid by the consumers".

The BJP chief alleged that the UPA government's "wrong policies and bad governance" had created 41 crore more Below Poverty Line families in the country and added that the Congress-led regime was only pleasing the chosen few including big corporates, multi national corporations and speculators while it had completely destroyed farmers, middle-class and poor people.

He said presently inflation was around 11 percent while countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand were having inflation rate of 2-3 percent and claimed the UPA government had made a mistake by allowing futures trading in essential commodities.

Asserting that inter-linking of rivers was the only way to deal with problems of floods at one place and acute shortage of water at others, he said a strong political will was needed to achieve this.

The BJP leader also said that to increase availability of water, irrigation, which was a state subject, should be put in the concurrent list.

Asked if party doors were still open for leaders like Govindacharya, Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti, he said they will have to make up their mind first and only then a decision can be taken.

Referring to a recent spat between two party leaders in Punjab, Gadkari said strict action will be taken against party leaders who air their grievances in the media rather than discussing them within the party.

"Whatever, party men have to say they can say it within the party platform. Airing grievances in the media will not be tolerated," he said, adding disciplinary action will be taken against those found guilty.

Recently, a spat between senior BJP leader in Punjab Laxmi Kanta Chawla and party Member of Legislative Assembly Jagdish Sahni had caused major embarrassment to the party.

"Party should be taken into confidence for whatever grievances are there," he said in a firm tone.