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- By Parinda News Bureau, March 24, 2006, 12:20 IST
Parinda's sources in Congress revealed that following Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's resignation, Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) president Gurudas Kamat on Thursday submitted his resignation from the post. Kamat expressed his solidarity with the Congress president and asked other party MPs to follow suit.
Kamat met Sonia in the afternoon and submitted his resignation to protest "political vendetta and misinformation campaign" carried out by BJP and other Opposition parties. Kamat, long known as a loyalist of the Gandhi family said his action was aimed at showing that Congressmen like Sonia are not power hungry. He, said he has called a meeting of party MPs, legislators, councillors and office-bearers in Mumbai on Friday.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Ram Naik called for dissolution of the Lok Sabha, saying "the political weapon used by Sonia against Jaya Bachchan has boomeranged. He added: "The president of the ruling party, Lok Sabha Speaker and some other top brass have violated the law of the land. It is a total fraud on the people of the country. Instead of resorting to dramatic acrobatics, the best course would be to dissolve the Lok Sabha and seek fresh mandate from the people of India".
Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said Sonia's move was a "fitting reply" to the BJP's smear campaign against her, while AICC general secretary Margaret Alva said "the BJP's effort to malign her by judging her on their own standards of power-mongering has backfired. She will be back in Parliament with high moral authority and support from Rae-Bareilly."
In a statement to the press, Kamat said he had sent his resignation to Sonia both as an MP and as Mumbai Congress chief. He appealed to all party MPs to' prove that Congressmen were not hankering for power but would like to set an example that the Congress president's loyal soldiers would follow in her footsteps. Gandhi has set a new standard of value-based politics, Deshmukh said, adding Maharashtra and Mumbai units of the Congress feel proud of her and are united with her in her decisions.
Alva said "BJP's effort to malign her by judging her on their own standards of power-mongering has backfired." MPCC chief Prabha Rau said the AICC chief had once again proved that she holds moral values in public life higher than posts of power.
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