Even as the BJP on Tuesday demanded his resignation, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien stayed defiant, writing letters to vice-president Hamid Ansari, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other leaders explaining his position in the Suryanelli gangrape case.
Kurien wrote that there was no evidence found against him in three inquiries conducted by both the CPM-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF governments and that he had been exonerated both by the Kerala HC and the SC in the 1996 case.
Kurien also alleged political conspiracy against him. Meanwhile BJP leaders in Delhi seemed to have changed their stand on the issue, after their Kerala counterparts said the party should not appear soft Kurein.
"New revelations every day in the Suryanelli rape case has made Kurien's position as deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha untenable. BJP, after consulting its state unit, demands that on moral grounds he should quit," party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
"We have been regularly updating the leadership about this issue. We have been consistently demanding his resignation," BJP Kerala unit chief V Muraleedharan said.
However, Congress leaders rejected the demand, saying question of morality doesn't arise when one is not convicted in a case.