By IANS,
New Delhi : The Congress said Wednesday that details about the party membership of N.D. Tiwari, who quit as the Andhra Pradesh governor following a sex scandal, would be known after Thursday when the Congress membership campaign ends.
“He has been our senior leader since he was appointed as governor of Andhra Pradesh. During his tenure as governor … he ceased to be a party member. Because it is a constitutional position,” said Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi, a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttarakhand.
“I cannot say whether he is a member of the party now,” Chaturvedi said.
“Our membership campaign will conclude Dec 31. Then only I can say anything about his membership,” Chaturvedi told IANS over telephone from Gujarat.
Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed had Tuesday said that it was a convention that a person ceases to be member of a political party once he is named governor.
Tiwari, appointed the Andhra Pradesh governor in August 2007, resigned Saturday citing health reasons.
On Friday, a Telugu television channel ran clips purportedly showing Tiwari in a compromising position with three women. Tiwari has called the allegations “baseless”.
Tiwari, one of the best known faces of the Congress, has been a chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and has also held several senior cabinet posts in the central government.
Chaturvedi said the post of the president of the country, vice-president, speaker and governor are constitutional positions and “they should not be members of any political party”.