Setback for Congress as ex-Law Minister Ashwani Kumar quits

New Delhi: Ahead of the Assembly polls in Punjab, the Congress suffered a big setback as former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar quit the party.

“Having given my thoughtful consideration to the matter, I have concluded that in the present circumstances and consistent with my dignity, I can best subserve larger national causes outside the party-fold. I am accordingly quitting the party after a long association of 46 years…,” he wrote in his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.

After quitting he targeted Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and claimed that the party’s defeat in the state in the February 20 Assembly polls is certain.

“From what I have seen on the ground, it seems that the Aam Aadmi Party is moving ahead there with a huge majority,” he was quoted as saying in a news report.

On being asked whether he is joining any other party, Kumar said, “I have not given any thought so far, but no party is untouchable. It is also not right to hold Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for every shortcoming in the country. I have always believed that ideas should be fought, not persons.”

Kumar had served as the Minister of Law and Justice and a Minister of State in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Ministry of Commerce and Industry during the Congress-led UPA. He was appointed as one of the Additional Solicitor Generals of India in 1991.

Image courtesy of (Photo courtesy: tribuneindia.com)

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