In a veiled attack on Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, BJP MP Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday asked the party why it was shying away from demanding the resignations of Union ministers Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel for their alleged involvement in the IPL scam.
Expressing her views at the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting on Tuesday morning, Maneka said Patel and his daughter had flouted so many rules but still the party was not demanding the minister's resignation. This approach, she maintained, was negating all the gains BJP had made by successfully by demanding the resignation of Union minister Shashi Tharoor over the IPL issue.
Maneka Gandhi said when Mumbai was burning, referring to the 26/11 attacks, it took eight hours to get a plane to take NSG personnel to the spot while it took only one hour to charter an Air India plane that was provided to ferry IPL players.
She was hinting towards reports that Poorna, daughter of Praful Patel and a hospitality manager of IPL, had arranged for a commercial flight to be converted into a chartered flight.
Party sources said this was an attack on Jaitley as BJP's reluctance to seek the resignation of Pawar and Patel is at his behest as he is close to them and is vice-president of BCCI, of which Pawar was the former chief. Incidentally, senior leader Yashwant Sinha also supported Maneka Gandhi's contention that the party should insist that Pawar and Patel put in their papers.
Sinha also suggested that BJP should move a breach of privilege motion against the Prime Minister for refusing demands for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe against IPL scam and phone tapping of politicians.
Deputy Leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha S S Ahluwalia tried to reason that the party should not seek resignations of Pawar and Patel as their was no clinching evidence against them. However, this was objected to by several members, the sources said. Responding to Maneka Gandhi's suggestions, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the party should pay heed to her opinion. PTI
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