Congress do away with Chavan, Kalmadi before opposition attack
New Delhi/Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan today became the first political casualty of the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi directing him to resign. "Pending enquiry, his (Chavan's) offer of resignation has been accepted. He has been asked to tender his resignation to Governor (K Sankaranarayanan)," Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said in a brief statement.
Latest reports claim the Governor has already accepted Chavan's resignatopn and has asked him to continue till a new person was appointed to the post.
The Congress decision came hours before the winter session of Parliament was set to commence in which the opposition had threatened to vociferously raise the issue.
51-year-old Chavan had on October 30 offered to resign during a meeting with Gandhi after it emerged that three of his relatives were members of the housing society in upmarket Colaba.
Meanwhile, Suresh Kalmadi also resigned as Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) secretary on Tuesday after he was asked to quit in the wake of serious corruption allegations against him as head of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, sources said.
Sources say Kalmadi was asked to resign as CPP secretary ahead of the winter session of parliament that began on Tuesday, sources said.
Opposition parties had planned disruptions of parliamentary proceedings to target the government over Kalmadi's role in the alleged bungling of funds meant for the October 3-14 Games.
"That Kalmadi has offered his resignation should stand alone. That should not connect with the Congress at all," party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan told a private news channel.
The government has already started investigations into the alleged misappropriation of the funds.
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