Chennai:
Home Minister P Chidambaram does not view as a setback the Madras High Court's refusal to dismiss a petition that challenges his election to the Lok Sabha. The minister will now face trial in the case. The BJP says that is reason for him to resign and J Jayalalithaa wants him sacked.
PTI reports Mr Chidambaram ruled out his resignation saying those who make the demand for his resignation "do not have criminal case, do not have charges and have not been questioned under Criminal Procedure Code".
"I am astonished by the monumental ignorance displayed by certain political leaders. This is an election petition. There are 111 election petitions filed against members of 15th Lok Sabha," Mr Chidambaram told PTI.
The High Court, while refusing this morning to quash a petition by the AIADMK's Raja Kannapan alleging that Mr Chidambaram's election team manipulated votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, did, however, remove two of the 29 allegations against him - the charge of corrupt practices has been deleted.
A statement from Mr Chidambaram's lawyer clarified that "the Court has not expressed any view on the merits of the allegations and has only struck out two crucial paragraphs on the ground that they do not comply with the strict law of pleadings."
Mr Chidambaram had won his Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat by a very slender margin of 3300 votes. Mr Kannapan, his closest competitor then, had accused him of electoral malpractices, tampering with voting machines, malpractice in re-counting of polls and misuse of official machinery. Mr Chidambaram's lawyer said that the major allegations pertaining to manipulation and misuse of bank and poll officials had been removed by the court.
The Home Minister said with the removal of the malpractices charges, today's order is a setback for the petitioner and not for him. He has pointed out that there are many such cases against other MPs in the current Lok Sabha.
But the Bharatiya Janata Party instantly renewed its attack on the Home Minister, saying he must quit. "I appeal to the Prime Minister to remove him from cabinet. There are so many instances of corruption against him. He has no moral right to be on his post. He should have resigned much earlier," said BJP president Nitin Gadkari.
Mr Gadkari "reminded" Congress president Sonia Gandhi that she had said she would not tolerate corruption. "Why is Sonia Gandhi protecting him? Why is the Congress tolerating his corruption? The country wants an explanation," Mr Gadkari said.
In Chennai, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa suggested that if Mr Chidambaram did not quit now, he should be removed from his post.
The Congress is dismissive and has closed ranks around its senior minister saying he has been declared elected by the Election Commission and that is all that matters. Party general secretary Digvijaya Singh said, "What case has he lost? It is an EC petition. He has not lost a case which has anything to do with his functioning as the Home Minister or as person," he said.
Law Minister Salman Khursheed also said, "Some mistake is being made when the word trial is used. It is an election petition trial, not a criminal trial. Just like there is a civil trial, there is an election petition trial. The home minister should print his resignation because they (the BJP) ask for a resignation every day. They wake up in the morning and say HM should resign."