With allegations of bribery against its senior ministers in Punjab, the BJP central leadership has decided to ask all its five ministers in the Parkash Singh Badal government to resign. A meeting of the state unit on the issue is to be held at 12.30 pm today.
Media reports on Thursday said that as part of what the BJP called a clean-up, the party is set to induct fresh faces into the Punjab ministry.
The BJP core group of L K Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu met for several hours on Wednesday. It was felt that the party could not afford to brush allegations of corruption against BJP ministers in Punjab under the carpet given its campaign against the UPA.
Media reports said all the party ministers in Punjab including Manoranjan Kalia, Tikshan Sood, Laxmi Kanta Chawla, Mohan Lal and Swarn Ram will be asked to resign.
While only Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia and Technical Education Ch Swarn Ram are being linked with the Rs 1.5 crore Raj Khurana bribery scandal, the BJP may or may not re-nominate the others.
There could also be a change in portfolios if it’s decided to re-nominate any of the ministers.
The BJP has 19 MLAs in Punjab and the change, reports said, would happen only after the May 13 Assembly election results.
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