New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday demanded that Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh resign from his post in the wake of CBI raids in connection with a disproportionate assets case against him even as Congress strongly condemned the action, terming it "inhumane and revengeful".
BJP also targeted Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi over the issue and dared them to get Singh to step down.
Singh has no "moral right" to continue in office, BJP leaders said while terming Congress the "mother of all corruption".
"It is a clear case of corruption. It is evident that he (Singh) misused his position as Union Steel Minister during UPA rule and indulged in corruption, which has been exposed now in this case. He has no moral right to continue," Union Minister JP Nadda said here.
Directing a salvo at Congress, which has attacked the saffron outfit over allegations against BJP ministers, BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma charged that Sonia and Rahul "only talk hollow about corruption, but do not act against its (Congress's) corrupt leaders".
"While Congress is the 'mother of all corruption', Singh is the 'symbol of corruption' who was allowed to flourish by the 'corrupt' Congress," he alleged. "We demand that if he does not resign of his own, the Congress leadership should immediately sack him."
"If there is any morality left in him (Singh), he should resign immediately as chief minister," added Sharma, the in- charge of BJP's Himachal affairs.
Keeping up the tirade, he said, "Sonia and Rahul Gandhi only talk hollow about corruption, but they do not act against its corrupt leaders. Congress only does a cover-up of corruption and only shelters the corrupt instead of acting against them."
Sharma also claimed that the Congress government in HP has lost public support and people's confidence on the ground.
Meanwhile, Nadda, who hails from HP, said, "The Congress government in HP has become a den of corruption and the common people are suffering. What more can you expect from a government which is led by a tainted chief minister."
CBI today carried out searches at 11 places in connection with a disproportionate assets case against the HP chief minister.
Terming the action "highly vindictive", senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said it had set a "shocking example of politics stooping to its lowest ebb". Nadda said that the people are not ready to bear the burden of a "tainted" chief minister whose "administrative failure" has already pushed the state into a big mess.
He charged that the brazen way in which Singh has amassed wealth through corrupt means was "shocking".
"It is high time that he stepped down," Nadda said.
Hitting out at Congress, he said that the party was making a "lame" defence in targeting CBI to shield Singh.
"The fact of the matter is that the preliminary enquiry was instituted against him (Singh) in 2013 when UPA was in power at the Centre. The FIR against Singh is a culmination of the preliminary enquiry. There are no excuses left for Congress and the tainted CM," added Nadda.
CBI had registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) against Singh and his family members for allegedly amassing wealth of Rs 6.1 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income during the time that he was the Union Minister of Steel in the UPA regime.
