Asha Kumari rules out resignation demand, Congress stands by her

Kumari met Sonia and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of unnecessarily making an issue out of a “non-issue”. “I am sorry, I cannot oblige them,” she said.

“I have been given full mandate by the Congress president and vice-president to work for the party in Punjab,” she said.

Kumari, an MLA from Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh, also met Sonia Gandhi.

The appointment of Kumari, niece of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, has kicked up a storm after it emerged that she was convicted in a land grab case, in which she had allegedly transferred forest land to her husband. She was sentenced to a year in jail, but is out on bail at present.

Meanwhile, defending Kumari’s appointment, the Congress on Monday shot back at the BJP for its criticism on the issue, saying, “Amit Shah is an accused in a murder case, who is out on bail”. “BJP president Amit Shah is charged of murder and is out on bail. He is an accused in a murder case. Yeddyurappa (who has been made BJP chief in Karnataka) is accused of corruption,” said party spokesman Kapil Sibal. 

“Ten cases are pending against Keshav Prasad Maurya, who has been made BJP chief in Uttar Pradesh,” he said, adding that “the Congress can never even think of appointing a murder accused as its chief”.

He alleged some BJP Ministers in Gujarat continued to occupy their posts despite being “convicted” by courts.

Sibal was responding to the attack on Congress by BJP and some other parties over the appointment of Asha Kumari.

He said the matter involving Kumari was a “highly complicated and complex” land issue and “not a case of murder and graft”.