Congress today dismissed demands for the resignation of Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the wake of a vigilance court ordering registration of an FIR against him and Power Minister Arayadan Mohammed in the solar scam.
"It is election time in Kerala, mischievous and malicious allegations will continue to fly... No need for the Kerala Chief Minister to resign now," Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala told reporters.
In reply to a volley of questions, he made a spirited defence of Chandy insisting that already a judicial commission has been set up on the issue and the chief minister has subjected himself to the inquiry, undergoing a day-long interrogation.
Claiming that there has been "no wrongdoing by the chief minister or any other minister", he said that the party was "open to conduct of any inquiry".
"Not a rupee of benefit was given by the Congress government in Kerala to any member of so called solar team. Not a rupee of loss has been cost, proved, even alleged as having been caused to exchequer of Kerala," Surjewala said.
Noting that the party would like to await the report of the judicial commission which was set up after consultations with the Opposition, he said that the finding of the Commission "will be acceptable to us".
"Congress party is of the opinion that there is no need for Kerala CM Oommen Chandy to resign at this stage. Chandy will discuss issues with all coalition partners as also with his colleagues,leaders of the Cong party," Surjewala said.
Besides, he said a detailed report will also be submitted to Congress party leadership in this regard. He said that all legal recourse will be sought to deal with the issue.
Seeking to cast doubts on the charges made by prime accused Saritha S Nair, Surjewala said that she had claimed in the past that Chandy was "like my father" and that she was offered Rs 10 crore by Opposition if she levels false allegations against him. Besides, he said in the past, she had not raised a "single question" against the chief minister.
The AICC reaction came within hours of the party's coalition government in Kerala suffering a a major embarrassment with the order of the vigilance court.
Rattling the government, the prime accused had yesterday targeted Chandy and Arayadan while deposing before the Justice Sivarajan Commission in Kochi, probing the case, and had alleged that she had paid bribes to the tune of Rs 1.90 crore to a close aide of the chief minister and Rs 40 lakh to the power minister. The two ministers have denied the allegations.
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Surjewala said that terms of reference of the Commission were based on all the sets of allegations leveled on the floor of the assembly as also by the Opposition outside the Assembly.
The chief minister and all the ministers of the coalition government have "respected" the proceedings of the judicial commission so much so that chief minister himself submitted willingly and answered questions put by both the Left parties as also by counsels for all the accused in solar scam for hours together.
