More Cong ministers may quit: Sonia

Congress president Sonia Gandhi said some ministers have offered to quit the government and devote themselves full time to the party for the Lok Sabha polls, reports Saroj Nagi.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said some ministers have offered to quit the government and devote themselves full time to the party for the Lok Sabha polls.

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“Some of them have offered to quit… You will get to know about it in the next one or two days,” she told reporters outside Parliament in an indication that some resignation offers would be accepted.

On Wednesday, Jairam Ramesh had quit as Union minister and joined the party’s strategy team for the elections.

The Lok Sabha polls are crucial for the party, which is hoping to come back to power. With barely two months left, the Congress would need to marshal its human resources to finetune its manifesto, publicity and campaign and hard-sell its achievements to the people.

In an effort to boost its prospects, the Congress is also trying to hammer out a seat-sharing arrangement with its UPA allies while seeking some new partners as well.

Seat-sharing talks with the Nationalist Congress Party are stuck on the latter’s demand for at least a 50:50 arrangement in Maharashtra. The glitches in UP include the Samajwadi Party’s unilateral announcement of 61 candidates for the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s association with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh.

Though AIADMK’s J. Jaya-lalitha has offered a rapproche-ment but the Congress isn’t taken in by it as it would lead to the collapse of DMK-Congress ties.