'My resignation no setback for Cong in HP polls'

Congress leader Virbhadra Singh, who quit Manmohan Singh cabinet after a Himachal Pradesh court order in a corruption case, on Sunday said his resignation is not a setback to the party's prospects in Himachal Pradesh polls later this year as he would come out unscathed before the vote.
     
"The event (my resignation on moral ground) is no setback for Congress ahead of the state assembly elections as people are aware that the CD is false and supported by fabricated evidence," Singh, who resigned as Union minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises on June 26, said.
 
Alleging that Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal was behind the events to gain politically in the assembly elections, Singh said the "CD case will in fact boomerang on Dhumal and the BJP in the polls."
     
"The common man of HP knows the truth of CD case and has full faith in me.... Dhumal's gameplan will yield no result in the elections," said the five-time chief minister of HP.
  
Singh had tendered resignation in the wake of a Himachal Pradesh court framing corruption charges against him and his wife Pratibha Singh in a 23-year-old graft case.
   
A special Shimla court of B L Soni had on June 25 ordered framing charges of corruption and criminal misconduct against him and his wife in the case, saying there was sufficient evidence to proceed against them.

Asked if the case would mar his chance of becoming chief minister in case Congress comes to power in the hill state, the veteran Congress leader said "I will be acquitted much before the assembly elections."
 
The party will decide the CM candidate in accordance with the wishes of the people of the state, he said.
  
"The case is pending with Himachal Pradesh High Court and I am sure I will be acquitted by the HC much before the assembly elections," Singh, who turned 78 on June 23 and celebrated completion of 50 years in active politics with a rally in Shimla on that day, said.
    
Singh, who fought Parliamentary elections for the first time in 1962 from Mahasu in combined Punjab, said he is devoting his time in mobilising party workers for the upcoming elections.
     
He said Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's address to the party workers at Kully recently has galvanized youths and energised Congress workers for the poll battle.