New Delhi, Aug 10: The government will introduce a bill to grant full statehood to Delhi in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani announced today.
"The home ministry has already given a shape to the bill and it will be introduced in Parliament in this session itself," he told a `parivartan rally` organised by BJP in the wake of the assembly elections in Delhi scheduled later this year.
Observing that the Centre supported the demand for granting full statehood to Delhi, he hoped entire Parliament will support the bill.
The demand for granting full statehood to Delhi was also made by the Sheila Dikshit government which wrote a letter to the Centre in this regard, Advani said.
Appealing to Delhiites to vote for BJP to change the Congress regime, Advani declared that its state unit leader Madan Lal Khurana will be the party`s chief ministerial candidate.
"I can assure that BJP, if voted to power in Delhi, will usher in an all round developmental process that would change the face of the capital," the Deputy Prime Minister said.
During his address, Advani restricted his speech to issues relating to Delhi.
He said the Vajpayee government was committed to bringing about development in all spheres to ensure that India became a developed nation by 2020.
Besides Advani and Khurana, other BJP leaders present at the rally were V K Malhotra and Sahab Singh Verma.
Bureau Report