Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Ever since the CAG report on coal blocks allocation was tabled in Parliament, the main Opposition the Bhartiya Janata Party has been relentlessly demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. However as per reports on Sunday, it seems that there is a sort of division in the party over the contentious issue.
Even as the CAG report on coalgate vitually washing out the monsoon session, the Congress on Saturday reached out to the BJP to for some sort of a truce and end the impasse. Congress President Sonia Gandhi called up Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj last night in a bid to break the logjam in Parliament.
After her telephonic conversation with Sonia, Swarai tweeted, “I told her that the government should announce the cancellation of Coal blocks and institute a fair and independent inquiry,"
Swaraj`s demands are significant considering the fact that the party has been unrelenting on the demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh`s resignation over which it has disrupted Parliament for two weeks.
However, there appeared to be a division in the saffron party over the possibility of a compromise. As per a television channel, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley stuck to the point that there had been no climbdown on the issue and that the BJP was sticking to its demands for the PM`s resignation.
"Many political parties feel that all the coal allocations should be cancelled. The PM should take sole responsibility of this scam and should resign because he was the then coal minister. We will stick on our demand," he was quoted as saying.
Sushma Swaraj’s tweets made no mention of the party`s demand for the Prime Minister`s resignation.
Swaraj`s tweet came after her followers in the micro-blogging site wanted to know the details of her conversation which she herself disclosed.
Swaraj, however, did not disclose what was Gandhi`s response nor did she reply to one of her followers whether her party has dropped the demand for the Prime Minister`s resignation.
Gandhi, meanwhile, left for abroad for a week for a routine medical checkup in connection with the surgery for an undisclosed ailment last year.
Meanwhile senior BJP leader LK Advani in his blog ‘Prime Minister’s poor defence of coalgate’ is also silent on the demand for Manmohan Singh’s resignation. On the contentious issue he has written, “If NDA’s demand that the discretionary allotment of coal already made should be scrapped and the coal blocks be auctioned is accepted and implemented, the truth would surface as to what is really the fair price presently.” However, he does not mention the demand of the party asking the PM to step down.
