New Delhi:
Mulayam Singh Yadav's party was left searching for an explanation after one of its leaders suggested that the Congress is covertly trying to remove the PM so he can be replaced by Rahul Gandhi. Mr Yadav's party provides external support for the Congress-led ruling coalition at the Centre.
Mohan Singh of the Samajwadi Party said that the BJP's disruptions of Parliament as it demands the Prime Minister's resignation may, in fact, be choreographed by a section of Dr Manmohan Singh's party. "Some people from inside Congress want to remove Manmohan Singh and bring in the Yuvraaj (crown prince). I wonder if this (demand for PM's resignation by BJP) is being played out from within Congress," Mr Singh said, baffling his own party and the Congress.
"There can be no bigger false imagination than this," countered Congress spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi, according to the Press Trust of India. "The party has repeated this several times...before 2009 elections, said in our manifesto that our Prime Ministerial candidate is Manmohan Singh. After that also, we have said this several times that he will continue to remain the Prime Minister till 2014," he stressed.
Another senior Samajwadi Party leader, Ramgopal Yadav, refused to comment on his colleague's conspiracy theory. But like other parties, he said that instead of insisting on the PM's resignation, the BJP should allow Parliament to get back to work and hold a detailed discussion on the coal allocation controversy. "Only a debate can help in finding a resolution. It's not necessary that whatever the Prime Minister has said is correct and the allegations of BJP may also not be fully correct," he said.
Yesterday, the PM said that a report that found his government guilty of mishandling the allocation of coal fields was baseless. The Comptroller and Auditor General said in its report earlier this month that private companies may have gained upto 1.86 lakh crores because they were given coal blocks at hugely concessional rates. The CAG did not indict the PM, who was Coal Minister when many of the sales took place, but said that the government delayed the introduction of an auction, which cost the country thousands of crores.
(
With agency inputs)