The Hindu : Front Page : Natwar Singh quits Rajya Sabha, Congress

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Natwar Singh quits Rajya Sabha, Congress

NEW DELHI: The former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh on Thursday resigned from the Rajya Sabha as well as Congress. He met Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari and later sent his resignation letter.

The septuagenarian leader said he had resigned from the primary membership of the Congress and a letter to this effect was sent on Wednesday to party president Sonia Gandhi.

Mr. Singh, once a close associate of Gandhi, turned a bitter critic of the party leadership when the Iraqi oil-for-food scam surfaced. It resulted in his suspension from the party in 2006. — PTI

Unfortunate: Congress

Special Correspondent reports:

The Congress on Thursday said it was “unfortunate” that Mr. Singh, should use the BJP platform to announce his resignation from the party.

Mr. Singh had announced his decision at a BJP-sponsored rally near Jaipur earlier this week.

AICC media department chairman M. Veerappa Moily said the resignation had not reached the Congress president so far. However, he asserted that the party would have to work out some “screening mechanism so that people of such credentials are not entertained.”

“He hasn’t gone gracefully. He enjoyed every kind of power as a Minister and in the Congress, but he just wanted to harm the party. Those who were talking about secularism against the BJP have landed in their net. The fact that he participated in a BJP rally shows that he has made up his mind [to join the BJP] and has been accepted. He is fit to be there,” he said.

Mr. Singh’s tenure in the Rajya Sabha comes to an end in April. He is already facing a disqualification petition filed by the Congress in the House Committee on Privileges.

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