Chennai:
After a court ruled that union minister P Chidambaram will face trial over the validity of his Lok Sabha election, the minister had said there was no question of him resigning. DMK leader M Karunanidhi agrees.
Mr Chidambaram has been accused by the AIADMK candidate, who he defeated by a sliver of a margin - 3000 votes - of rigging the election. "Only charges have been levelled; they should be proved beyond doubt," said Mr Karunanidhi, whose DMK is the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu.
The minister had said that leaders who asked for his resignation after yesterday's court verdict - they included BJP President Nitin Gadkari and Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa - demonstrated "monumental ignorance." He also said that the main charges against him had been dropped by the Madras High Court, so the verdict was a setback for the petitioner, not him.
That glass-half-full approach is tough to swallow. The court has said that 27 allegations made against him remain; the charges dropped against him include distributing cash among voters and abusing his position as minister to rally official machinery in his favour.
Mr Chidambaram's main opponent was the AIADMK's RS Raja Kannappan. His win gave the minister his sixth term as Lok Sabha MP from the constituency of Sivaganga.
Mr Karunanidhi said that Jayalalithaa, his arch rival who also ousted him from power in the state elections last year, has no right to demand anyone's resignation given that she is being tried for corruption in her earlier terms as chief minister.