Uma wants OBC CM in Chhattisgarh

Raipur, June 6: Expelled BJP leader and Bharatiya Janshakti president Uma Bharti today said a state like Chhattisgarh must have a chief minister from among the tribals or the 0ther backward classes (OBC).

''It will help bring social justice through a natural process'', she told newspersons here.

Ms Bharti, who was on her way to Jagdalpur to attend a religious programme, said immediately after the 2003 assembly elections she had raised the demand for a tribal or OBC Chief Minister within the party forum.

''But the party leaders told me that there was no tribal who is capable of becoming the chief minister,'' she claimed, adding if such a situation continued, a day would come when there would be reservation for the post of chief minister.

Alleging that the BJP had committed similar mistakes in Uttaranchal by making a non-Uttaranchali as the chief minister, she said it was one of the reasons for the defeat of BJP in the Assembly elections.

''Tribals and OBCs require respect. Not just Roti, Cows and Salt,'' she quipped without referring to the BJP government's much publicised schemes to distribute salt at 25 paise a kilo and a cow each to all tribal families. ''BJP cannot fulfill this'', she added.

UNI