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BJP rakes up corruption cases of Congress leaders

New Delhi: Raking up the issue of corruption charges against Congress leaders, including chief ministers of Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the BJP on Thursday sought an answer from the party leaders.

The ruling party at the Centre also questioned former union finance minister P. Chidambaram’s role in the 2G scam.

“There is a big list of important Congress leaders who have serious charges of corruption against them. We demand their removal from their posts,” union minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters after citing corruption charges against Congress chief ministers Oommen Chandy (Kearla), Veerbhadra Singh (Himachal) and Harish Rawat (Uttarakhand).

Raking up recent Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate raids at firms linked to Karthik Chidambaram, son of P. Chadambaram, Sitharaman said: “There were IT and ED raids into companies where Karthik Chidambaram is assosiated. It is part of larger 2G enquiry.”

“The Congress should wake up and answer these. It clearly seems that the Congress has no mechanism to deal with corruption,” she said, adding that the central government has given so far a corruption free government and following the black money issue seriously.

Citing a recent notification by the Swiss government, Sitharaman said it had reinforced the charge that former union minister Preneet Kaur had an undisclosed bank account in Switzerland.

She also hoped that the attack on Congress leaders would not affect prospects of Goods and Services Tax Bill.

“GST is in national interest. If these would become an issue and if they would not support GST, then it would be a sad day,” she said.