By IANS,
Chandigarh : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday strongly defended its Punjab leaders who were recently named in a corruption related case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last month expressed suspicion over the involvement of two former Punjab BJP ministers Manoranjan Kalia and Swarna Ram in a corruption case.
Following this, both the leaders resigned May 12 and their portfolios were assigned to other BJP ministers.
“Our leaders are not corrupt and no charges were proved against them,” BJP general secretary J.P. Nadda said.
“Reshuffling of ministers was decided a long time back and its timing clashed with this incident. There was nothing related with CBI probe. Our leaders are very intelligent and we have full faith in them,” he added.
“Now when they are not ministers, more responsible and challenging positions could be given to them. I had also resigned from the post of minister to hold my current position,” Nadda pointed out.
In the same case, the CBI had arrested BJP legislator Raj Khurana May 5. Khurana, who was chief parliamentary secretary in the Punjab government, resigned May 8. He was later released on bail.
“The BJP is very serious about corruption issue and it will not be tolerated in any state. We are keeping a tab on all the issues and developments and accordingly we will decide our further action,” Nadda said.