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Congress isn't interested in Buta Singh

Buta Singh may be interested in returning to the Congress, but the Congress apparently isn't interested in him.

Buta Singh, who was refused a Congress ticket by then party president Sitaram Kesri, left his party of 35 years and contested and won the Jalore Lok Sabha seat as an Independent.

Party leaders said his re-entry would not help the party since it had no plans to bring down the BJP government. There is also the matter that party president Sonia Gandhi was pushing for probity in public life and a cleaner political system.

And though it was ostensibly his differences with Kesri that made him leave the party, the leadership has not forgotten that, even when the new leadership took over, Buta Singh had chosen to discuss options with both Sonia Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. So his recent overtures have cut no ice with the party.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee sacked Singh, his communication minister, since he had corruption charges against him in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribing case. Vajpayee was pushed into taking notice of the charges by All-India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalitha because the government had earlier got AIADMK minister Sedapatti Muthiah to resign when corruption charges were slapped on him.

Senior party leader Sharad Pawar, though, left the options open, saying Buta Singh's re-entry was not an easy matter since the party first has to decide whether to take back those who joined the BJP. But he said the party would also consider Singh's 35 years in the party.

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