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Kalmadi asks Pawar to quit over RS debacle

Spewing venom on the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sharad Pawar, newly-elected Rajya Sabha member Suresh Kalmadi today urged his former mentor to own up responsibility for the defeat of Congress candidate Ram Pradhan and resign from his parliiamentary post.

"If Mr Pawar can take credit for the victory of 37 Congress members in the last Lok Sabha election, then he should also own moral responsibility for the defeat of Mr Pradhan, the official candidate of the Congress party and the nominee of party president Sonia Gandhi, and resign from his post," Kalmadi told reporters at his home on his first visit to Pune after being elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Kalmadi said Pawar sat all through in Bombay with the sole purpose of ''defeating Suresh Kalmadi'' and fielded newspaper baron Vijay Darda as an Independent.

"While Mr Pawar failed in his mission to (defeat me) by fielding Mr Darda, it also resulted in the defeat of the Congress candidate," said the former railway minister, who got elected against all odds.

Kalmadi claimed that a few Independent MLAs and disgruntled Congress members voted for him. ''I only got moral support from the Bharatiya Janata Party. No Shiv Sena or BJP member voted for me,'' he said.

He claimed he did not lose the Lok Sabha election because of Pawar, but because of the anti-establishment vote and the dalits and the minority grouping together in favour of the Congress.

He advised Pawar to resign from his post before the three-member inquiry team headed by senior Congressman Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy submits its report to party president Sonia Gandhi.

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