The Hindu : National : Natwar hasn’t quit gracefully: Moily

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Natwar hasn’t quit gracefully: Moily

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday said it was “unfortunate” that the former Union Minister and suspended leader, K. Natwar Singh, should use the Bharatiya Janata Party platform to announce his resignation from the party.

Mr. Singh had announced his decision to resign from the primary membership of the Congress at a BJP-sponsored rally near Jaipur earlier this week. He is later reported to have told some journalists that he had sent in his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Chairman of the AICC Media Committee 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,” Mr. Moily 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 on the charge of participating in a Samajwadi Party function to release the party’s manifesto before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections last year.

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