Kumari Selja quits as minister, to work in party

Kumari Selja, who has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha, has quit the Union council of ministers to work in the party.

Selja, who held the social justice and empowerment portfolio since October 2012, submitted her resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last night, sources close to her said.

The resignation of 51-year-old Selja, a known detractor of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, comes at a time when the Congress high command is undertaking a rejig in the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The fourth-time Lok Sabha member put in her papers soon after being nominated to the Rajya Sabha from her home state Haryana. The assembly elections in Haryana are scheduled by the yearend.

Congress sources said that the Union minister is being drafted for party work for the next Lok Sabha polls.

The party high command is in search of a PCC chief for the state to replace Phulchand Mulana. Earlier the name of young party Ashok Tanwar, also a Dalit was doing rounds for the PCC post.

She has been active politics since 1990 and was first elected in 1991. She is a four term Lok Sabha MP. A section in the party believes that she could be accommodated in the AICC.

Selja is the minister for social justice and empowerment.

She is the daughter of former Union Minister Chaudhary Dalbir Singh. She was a Lok Sabha member from Ambala and had earlier represented Sirsa. A prominent Dalit face of the party in Haryana, she had been more active in the politics of Centre.

Selja is a second woman minister to have quit the Union council of ministers in the recent past after Jayanthi Natarajan.

A number of Union ministers are likely to put in their papers in coming days to involve them in party work ahead of the Lok Sabha polls scheduled in April.

Recently four senior ministers P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Salman Khurshid and Anand Sharma were made senior spokespersons of the party while Shashi Tharoor and Jyotiraditya Scindia were made spokespersons.