New Delhi, Sep 11: The fate of two Congress ministers, tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahai and coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal looks uncertain, with indications that the party president Sonia Gandhi may ask both of them to resign.
A media report said, the Congress leadership is considering strong measures to contain the fallout from the Coalgate scam.
Although the leadership continues to resist the allegation of a scam, it appears to have come around to the view that persisting with the duo may have become politically untenable.
The report said, the Congress leadership is also considering its options regarding party men like Vijay Darda, Naveen Jindal and former minister of state for coal Santosh Bagrodia who have been enveloped by the widening shadow of the Coalgate scam.
The report says the Congress leadership seems to realize that the involvement of party members in the controversial allocation of coal blocks has thickened the perception of collusion between the government and the allottees of blocks, handing the opposition a stick to beat it with.
The sudden spike in speculation about their political fate coincided with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's return from abroad on Monday morning.
Sonia, who had gone for a routine medical check up, is likely to hold deliberations with her colleagues as part of the larger restructuring she has planned for the government and the party this month.
Subodh Kant Sahai had written to PM Manmohan Singh recommending allocation of coal blocks to a company, SKS Ispat and Power, which had his younger brother as one of its directors.
The company in question got blocks the very next day, and the tourism minister has not been able to shake off the charge of conflict of interest.
A clear case of conflict of interest has not been established against Sriprakash Jaiswal yet, but the leadership seems to feel that he has not been able to effectively explain why coal blocks continued to be allocated on his charge, and well into 2010.
Jaiswal's explanation that he was merely following through on the decisions taken by the screening committee before he got charge of the ministry has not been found to be convincing.
There is also a wariness of the unfolding revelations on links of government functionaries with the allottees.
Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda has been named in CBI's first set of FIRs into Coalgate.
Although the agency has not charged him yet under the Prevention of Corruption Act, his proximity to Manoj Jayaswal, one of the prime beneficiaries, is seen as a political vulnerability for the Congress.
Congress MP Naveen Jindal, whose Jindal Power Limited was allocated several coal blocks, has been in the opposition's line of fire.
The newspaper report that his firm did not pass on the benefits of cheap coal supply to consumers has undermined the Centre's argument that it did not auction coal blocks because doing so would have rendered the eletricity tariff higher.
The CBI is also probing the previous Left Front government's recommendations for allocation of coal blocks made during the tenure of the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Coal blocks were allotted between 2005 and 2008 to companies like Bhushan Steel, Rashmi Cement, Ramsarup, Adhunik and Jai Balaji.
The coal blocks under the scanner were not routed through the West Bengal Mineral Trading and Development Corporation, but were allocated to the companies by the Centre on the basis of the recommendations of the then Left Front government.
