ED summons on Majithia:Badal rules out seeking his resignation

With opposition parties mounting pressure, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today ruled out asking Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia to resign after the Enforcement Directorate served summons on him in connection with the international drug racket case.
Asked whether he would ask Majithia to step down from his post till the investigation is pending, Badal said, "I have never demanded resignation from anybody."
Talking to reporters outside the state Assembly here, the chief minister said his Shiromani Akali Dal would reply to all issues to be raised by the opposition parties in the Winter Session which began today.
Badal was responding to media queries after attending a meeting of the ruling SAD-BJP alliance after the first sitting of the three-day Winter Session.

Reminded that senior SAD leader Sarwan Singh Phillaur had resigned in May this year after his son's name cropped up in the drug racket case, Badal said, "Phillaur resigned on his own. I never asked him to resign."
ED has summoned Majithia to appear before it on December 26 in connection with alleged money laundering in the Rs 6,000-crore drug racket case. Majithia is brother-in-law of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Majithia was conspicuous by his absence during the first sitting of the Winter Session. Sukhbir too was not present.

Talking to reporters on the issue, Punjab minister and BJP MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani said the law would take its own course. "Law will take its own course. Neither Badal sahib (the CM) nor we could stop it," he said.
The ruling party threw its weight behind Majithia, asserting that there was no need for him to resign. "You cannot punish anybody merely on the basis of summons. SAD is with Majithia and there is no need for him to resign. If something concrete comes, then we will see," SAD general secretary Daljeet Singh Cheema said.
Opposition Congress and People's Party of Punjab have sought Majithia's resignation. Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma too had yesterday sought Majithia's resignation for a "fair probe" into the matter.