Date:07/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/07/stories/2008050756960100.htm

Front Page

Congress MP quits party, Rajya Sabha

Special Correspondent

UP Congress veteran Akhilesh Das blames it on “coterie” around Rahul Gandhi

– PHOTIO: R. V. MOORTHY

“I RESIGN”: Akhilesh Das displaying his letter of resignation at Parliament House in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Senior Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Akhilesh Das resigned from the party as well as the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, blaming it on a “coterie” around party general secretary and MP Rahul Gandhi. He also resigned from all party positions.

Swiftly rejecting the allegations “with contempt”, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said they were “untrue”.

“This is the worst kind of political opportunism. It is due to the frustration of having lost his place in the Council of Ministers. Not even a ripple would be caused by his exit,” she said.

Mr. Das is a former Union Minister of State for Steel who was dropped from the Council of Ministers in the last reshuffle. His Congress membership of the Rajya Sabha was coming to an end on November 25. In the recent Cabinet expansion, his Ministry was allotted to Jitin Prasad, also from U.P.

Amid speculation on his joining the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mr. Das submitted his resignation from the Upper House in a dramatic manner. Even as Chairman Hamid Ansari was making obituary references to tabla maestro Kishan Maharaj and Myanmar cyclone victims, Mr. Das walked up to him to submit his resignation letter, which the Chairman did not take. He then left the letter on the table of the Secretary-General and walked out of the House.

“I have lost faith and confidence in the Congress Party and have decided to resign from the primary membership of the party,” Mr. Das said in the letter.

He said he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from UP on Congress ticket on November 26, 2002, and his present term expires on November 25.

Mr. Das, who is the son of former UP Chief Minister Banarasi Das, separately wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and submitted his resignation from the primary membership of the party and all posts.

In his letter to Ms. Gandhi he alleged that if the “coterie” around Rahul Gandhi was not happy with someone, the person had to suffer. “If the coterie is allowed to influence Rahul Gandhi in this manner, I regret to say it would affect his political future.”