By IANS,
New Delhi : Three chief ministers – Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Vilasrao Deshmukh – Tuesday were seen keenly observing proceedings in the Lok Sabha during the debate over the trust motion moved by prime minister Manmohan Singh the day before.
Raje, the chief minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Rajasthan, was among the first few to enter the Lok Sabha in the morning. Throughout the day, she was seen hobnobbing with senior party leaders and parliamentarians (MPs) from Rajasthan.
Rajashtan is one of the states where BJP MPs have expressed total solidarity with the party’s decision to oppose the motion of trust over the India-US nuclear deal, although there were apprehensions that Raje’s detractors might use the occasion to settle scores with her.
By ensuring that all BJP MPs from her state put up a united front, Raje has left no scope for speculation on her ability to manage crises such as the Gujjar agitation and keeping friends and detractors together on board.
Equally busy was Shivraj Singh Chauhan, chief minister of the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh. He also met his senior party leaders and discussed strategies to ensure all party MPs turned up and vote against the motion.
Though Chauhan did not take any queries from the media on how he contributed to the BJP’s strategy on toppling the Manmohan Singh government, he said the India-US nuclear deal was not scripted right.
“The BJP leadership has repeatedly pointed out a number of flaws in the India-US nuclear deal. The deal is not in the interest of the nation,” Chauhan said.
Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of Congress-ruled Maharashtra state was also seen busy discussing strategies with party colleagues. He even spent quite some time in the visitors’ gallery.