BJP gears up to corner Chidambaram

The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is preparing to launch an assault on P Chidambaram over his wife being hired by the Central Bureau of Direct Taxes (CBDT) as a lawyer while he is the finance minister.

The Opposition is set to demand a personal explanation from the finance minister on the floor of the House, when it meets tomorrow.

BJP General Secretary Sushma Swaraj said day before yesterday the party would seek the finance minister's resignation.

Wary after the Tytler resignation drama dragged on for a full three days because the Congress did not have a strategy to handle it, the party's crisis managers are now trying to figure out how to handle the Chidambaram issue.

That Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was batting on the finance minister's side was clear yesterday. When reporters pointed out to him on the sidelines of a function that though he would be away in Kabul, the BJP would raise the issue the day after, Sing said, "They are just a frustrated lot", making light of the controversy.

But Congress leaders confessed that it was not a problem that would go away on its own. They said the BJP would demand Chidambaram's resignation, the Prime Minister would refuse, and the guns would then be trained on Singh.

"We're not going to do a Tytler on Chidambaram. But there is no doubt the issue has embarrassed us," said a minister. In Tytler's case, although the Congress said there were no legal grounds for letting Tytler go, the combined attack of the BJP and the Left forced the party to ask for Tytler's resignation.

In this case, the Left is not unsympathetic to the finance minister's predicament.

The Left agrees that a husband's career cannot determine a wife's career options and moves.

The Left parties also point out that the BJP is not untouched by such controversies. There is the matter of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya's alleged interests in the disinvestment of the Centaur Hotel in Mumbai, that is currently being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Also, Left leaders say there is the case of former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha's daughter-in-law in the Mauritius double tax avoidance negotiations. But Left leaders admit that the UPA could have done without this controversy.

Congress leaders say their best bet is to get the two Houses of Parliament adjourned early tomorrow so that protracted discussion on the issue is avoided. Tactically, their target is to isolate the BJP and secure the Left's total support on the matter.