BJP demands Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's resignation

NEW DELHI: With CBI initiating a preliminary enquiry against Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, BJP today demanded his immediate resignation to allow a probe to take place independently and demanded a public apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi for allowing scams.

BJP also accused Congress of promoting corruption and charged the party's top leadership with allowing corrupt leaders to flourish during its regime while rejecting charges of "vendatta politics" levelled by the opposition party.

"Virbhadra Singh should resign immediately so that an independent CBI probe can be carried out," BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

Attacking Sonia and Rahul, he said, "Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the nation for giving shelter to such corrupt leaders and allowing them to flourish as well as for all the scams that took place during UPA regime."

Dubbing Congress as "the mother of corruption", he said, the time has come to take action against the corrupt as they all flourished and prospered under Sonia and Rahul's leadership.

"It is a matter of shame that Congress's first family is talking of vendatta politics. Congress leaders are talking of vendatta politics only to hide their own sins," he said, citing various scams that took place in the 10 years of Congress-led UPA rule.

CBI initiated an enquiry against Virbhadra Singh on the alleged disproportionate assets worth Rs 6.1 crore amassed while he was serving as Union Minister of Steel.

The agency claimed that the present probe is an offshoot of its ongoing inquiry into alleged bribe paymment made to Singh by a steel firm.

CBI sources said the new preliminary enquiry (PE) is against Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, son Vikramaditya Singh, daughter Aparajita Singh and an LIC agent Anand Chauhan.

The PE will probe with disproportionate assets perspective the alleged unexplained income of Rs 6.1 crore during the period 2009-11 when he was serving as the Minister of Steel in the UPA Government, the sources said.