Jaipur, June 15: Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala today extended “unreserved support” to the leadership of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee even after the next general elections. "I am a supporter of Vajpayee since my student life and even after the next Lok Sabha elections I shall be the first person to support Vajpayee to again form government at the Centre," Chautala, who is also chief of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), told reporters here.
When asked as to whom he will support if BJP decides to change its leader, he said the controversy had already been cleared by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani saying that Vajpayee would lead the party as well as the government. However, he rejected any truck with the Congress as its president Sonia Gandhi "does not understand Indian culture and ethos because of her foreign origin".
While refusing to ban ‘trishul deeksha’ in Haryana, he said it was not necessary because people in his state did not give any credence to "VHP gimmicks". Advocating reservation on economic basis, Chautala said it was more important to create jobs by encouraging industry and trade because government jobs were shrinking fast.
Haryana chief minister said his party has decided to contest coming assembly polls in Rajasthan in a big way against both the Congress and the BJP after receiving tremendous response from the people of the desert state.
The number of seats to be contested and the question of alliance with others parties would be decided only after announcement of the polls, he said.
Chautala favoured Central control on all the rivers in the country for generating power and providing water for irrigation.
He also announced state executive of INLD for Rajasthan to be headed by Jai Narayan Punia and also included Vijay Bhandari as vice president, Gulam Mustafa Khan and Mani Rai as general secretaries and Sanjay Chopra as treasurer. Bureau Report