BJP leaders meet Himachal Guv, demand ouster of Virbhadra

Himachal BJP today demanded dismissal of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and dissolution of state assembly to pave way for fresh elections.
In a memorandum submitted to Governor Acharya Dev Vrat, the BJP said that Singh has no moral right to continue in office after registration of disproportionate assets case against him and his wife by CBI and subsequent raids at his residences and twelve other locations recently.
"A free and fair probe would not be possible in case he remains in office as he can influence the enquiry and as such he should be sacked immediately," the memorandum stated.
A delegation of BJP led by former chief minister P K Dhumal, state party chief Satpal Singh Satti and Party General Secretary (incharge of organisational affairs for Himachal), Srikant Sharma, party MLAs and other senior leaders met the Governor and apprised him of the fallout of prevailing political uncertainty in the state.

Dhumal said that the party would step up its campaign to ouster of Virbhadra Singh and go to the masses at constituency level to expose corruption in the party.
"After the CBI raids, the Chief Minister should have resigned on moral grounds or the party high command should have asked him to quit but it was intriguing and shameful that entire Congress party and the High Command have stood by him chief minister," he said.

"It proves that Congress is the mother of corruption and champion of covering up corruption," he added.
The opposition party also accused the Congress of misleading and confusing the people by unleashing a misinformation campaign that BJP leaders were behind the case.

"It is well known that the case pertains to the period when Virbhadra Singh was Union minister for steel. The issues of filing revised income tax returns cropped during the same time. The PIL was also filed in Delhi Court and preliminary enquiry by CBI was also started during the UPA government," BJP leaders said.
Party General Secretary Srikant Sharma said that it was strange that the AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Vice president Rahul Gandhi blew up even small cases of corruption but in this case where a sitting Chief Minister is in the dock over corruption charges, both the leaders are silent.