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BJP on back foot, Dist Cong demands Sharma's resignation
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been left embarrassed and on back foot following registration of cases against four aides of state president of the party Kamal Sharma in drug smuggling and currency counterfeit cases. District Congress has also demanded that Sharma should resign immediately owing moral responsibility.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been left embarrassed and on back foot following registration of cases against four aides of state president of the party Kamal Sharma in drug smuggling and currency counterfeit cases. District Congress has also demanded that Sharma should resign immediately owing moral responsibility.
On August 6, an FIR against four associates of Sharma was lodged for allegedly accepting a bribe of `35 lakh. Even the personal assistant of Sharma was also among those against whom FIR was registered.However, the event has left the BJP red-faced across the state, including Ludhiana, and the party was tight lipped over the issue.
The district Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is of the view that law should take its own course. The issue has also affected the BJP in Ludhiana where the party was highlighting the issue of drug peddlers having political connections.
However, the issue has also made the rift wide open in the BJP and the alliance partner SAD as some of the leaders of the BJP have stated that SAD leader and cabinet minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia should resign as his name had allegedly came in the drug peddling case. "Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal should first ask his brother Bikramjit Singh Majithia to resign before she demands a resignation from Kamal Sharma," said Sukhminder Singh Grewal, national secretary of the BJP Kisan Morcha.
Grewal said Kamal's name has not taken by any drug peddler. "The SAD should look into its own house before throwing bricks at the BJP," said Grewal. However, the district SAD has distanced itself from the controversy by saying that the cases have been booked and law should take its own course. "There are police and other law enforcing agencies that would look into the case," said Madan Lal Bagga, district president of SAD.
However, not losing an opportunity, the Congress has attacked Sharma and asked for resignation from him. "When Pawan Kumar Bansal, whose nephew was arrested for allegedly accepting bribe, resigned from the post of minister for railways, then why doesn't Kamal Sharma whose close associates have been arrested in bribe case resigns," questions Gurpreet Singh Gogi, district president of the Congress.
