Meira Kumar quits Cong.(I)

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 2. The former Congress(I) MP, Ms. Meira Kumar, has resigned from the primary membership of the party. She has also quit as CWC member. Ms. Kumar, did not assign any reason for her decision in her terse three-line letter to the party president. She was also the chairperson of the party's SC/ST wing.

Ms. Kumar's resignation is a setback for the Congress(I) which has stepped up its efforts to win back the support of Dalits and the backward classes.

The late evening development caught senior party leaders completely unawares; many CWC members did not know of her resignation. They said she had attended the CWC meetings (now converted to the central election committee) until yesterday to finalise candidates for the Haryana Assembly elections.

It is speculated that she was unhappy that some of her nominees were not accommodated. According to party sources, Ms. Kumar was ``sulking'' after she lost the Lok Sabha elections as she felt she was not being enough importance in the party. She was reportedly miffed at not being nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Delhi. Of late, Ms. Kumar has also been unwell.

Congress(I) leaders suspected that Ms. Kumar may have opened channels of communication with another party and pointed to the decision of the Union Cabinet yesterday to convert her residence, currently housing the Jagjivan Ram Memorial Trust, to a national memorial.

Ms. Kumar was not available for comment. She is likely to hold a press conference tomorrow to explain why she took the extreme step of resigning from the party.

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