Natwar formally resigns from Cong

A week after he announced his resignation from the Congress at a Bharatiya Janata Party-sponsored...

A week after he announced his resignation from the Congress at a Bharatiya Janata Party-sponsored rally near Jaipur, former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh formally resigned from the party on Wednesday, setting the stage for his outright disqualification from the Rajya Sabha.

Singh has sent a brief letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi stating that he is submitting his resignation from the party. He has not stated any reason for his resignation.

As at the February 13 Jat rally, on Wednesday too, Singh was non-committal on whether he plans to join the BJP. When told that the Congress will promptly take the next logical step of getting him disqualified from the House, he replied, “What’s left of my membership? Barely six weeks.” Singh said he may consider sending his resignation from the Rajya Sabha once the Parliament session begins.

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Congress chief whip V Narayanasamy said he was not in a position to comment as of now.

Rajya Sabha vice-chairman K Rahman Khan, who heads the Committee on Privileges, when contacted at Bangalore, said, “His letter to the Congress president implies that he automatically loses his membership of the House. This, when viewed under paragraph 2(1) (A) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, amounts to his having voluntarily given up his membership of the Rajya Sabha.”

All that’s required for unseating Singh is a petition by the Congress, accompanied by a copy of his resignation letter, to Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari. The Committee is already conducting an inquiry on an earlier Congress petition for Singh’s disqualification on the ground that he participated in a function held to release Samajwadi Party’s election manifesto.