Ranchi, Jan 18: The Congress today asked Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda to come clean on the allegations made aganst him by state Science and Technology minister Samresh Singh. ''Either Munda should come clean or drop his minister immediately in the wake of the allegations against him made by none other than a member of his cabinet,'' AICC secretary and in-charge of Jharkhand Imran Kidwai told a press conference here.
The rebel minister, who yesterday had set January 31 as the deadline for a leadership change in the NDA alliance, alleged that development work in the state had come to a grinding halt under Munda's leadership due to lack of vision and non-completion of distribution of 32,000 appointment letters.
Munda dismissed Singh's demand for his ouster as gimmick. Singh, the lone minister from state NDA ally Jharkhand Vananchal Congress, also recently alleged in Bokaro that Munda had obtained a private contract in the name of his wife.
Kidwai said the party would demand a CBI probe into the contract controversy and would be meeting the Governor shortly. Speaking on electoral alliance in the state, JPCC president Thomas Hansda, who was alongside with Kidwai, said talks with the RJD and the JMM were going on and things would get clearer by the first week of February.
Bureau Report