Saved public money by paralysing Parliament over coalgate: Ananth

Holding the Congress solely responsible for the coal block allocation scam, BJP national general secretary Ananth Kumar said on Tuesday that the party had saved Rs 1.89 lakh crore of public money “by paralysing Parliament.”

“We saved Rs 1.89 lakh crore of public money against Rs 100 crore loss by way of paralysing Parliament,” said Kumar, while addressing the party’s state executive committee meeting at Khandwa.

Demanding cancellation of all 145 mines allotted without inviting bids and an impartial probe into the matter, Kumar, who is also the in-charge of party’s affairs in Madhya Pradesh, said the coal scam was purely a doing of the Congress. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must resign owning moral responsibility,” he said, giving the examples of DMK ministers A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran (2G scam) and Suresh Kalmadi (Commonwealth Games scam).

“We will launch nationwide agitation, hold nukkad meetings. The country has seen scams worth Rs 10 lakh crore in last eight years. That money could have been utilized for projects like inter-linking of rivers,” the BJP leader said.

On the controversy arising out of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s comment that Lok Sabha leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj is the only “deserving” BJP candidate for the post of prime minister, Kumar said, “People are talking such things as they are fully aware that the BJP-led NDA is coming to power at the Centre and the Congress is going.”