BJP leaders should quit the Parkash Singh Badal government after the saffron outfit's state president "called a spade a spade" on the issue of drug smuggling, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa said on Sunday.
In a statement here, Bajwa said that BJP state president Kamal Sharma had through his comments only corroborated what Congress has maintained all along regarding the drug racket in the state.
Shiromani Akali Dal leads a coalition government in Punjab with BJP as its partner.
Bajwa claimed that Sharma had "hit the nail on the head" when he reportedly stated that all those whose names had been linked to the drug racket must come clean irrespective of their party affiliations.
"You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. BJP must draw the line and quit the coalition government," Bajwa said.
"With the president of the alliance partner (BJP) calling a spade a spade on this sensitive issue, it is all the more necessary for Chief Minister Badal to initiate action against those from his Cabinet whose names have come up in connection with drug smuggling.
"It is now not the Congress which is levelling allegations ... The fact has been admitted by BJP," Bajwa claimed.
"It is now not the Congress which is levelling allegations ... The fact has been admitted by BJP," Bajwa claimed.
Reiterating the demand for an immediate CBI inquiry into the drug racket, Bajwa demanded that the Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia be dismissed without delay.
With the change of government at the Centre, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal cannot now claim that CBI was the "Congress Bureau of Investigation", Bajwa added.
He said that being the alliance partner, BJP was an equal shareholder in all the crimes with which Akali leaders were associated.
BJP must take the initiative to prove that the party was sincere about the concerns of the people, he said.