UPA rules out resignation of PK Bansal, Ashwani Kumar

NEW DELHI: The UPA today decided not to oblige the opposition by asking for the resignation of Railway Minister P K Bansal, whose nephew was arrested in a bribery case, as also Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, who is in the eye of a storm over coalgate controversy.

A meeting of the Congress Core Group, the second in as many days, saw the ruling party deciding to weather the storm at a time when Parliament is paralysed over a host of issues, including the coal scam in which the BJP is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

After the deliberations of the meeting chaired by party chief Sonia Gandhi at the residence of the Prime Minister, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari ruled out resignations of either Bansal or Kumar.

In fact, he even quoted NDA Convenor and JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav's defence of Bansal to make an attack on BJP remarking, "resignation does not augur well for democracy".

Bansal's resignation is being demanded in the wake of the arrest of his nephew by CBI on the charge of accepting bribe to fix plum position in the Railway Board and demands for his removal and prosecution are mounting.

The resignation of Kumar is being demanded in the wake of allegations that he had interfered in the preparation of CBI status report on coal allocation scam issue to the Supreme Court.