The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday welcomed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's directive to Coal Minister Shibu Soren to resign from the Union council of ministers, but said it was a "belated" decision.
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Soren, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued by a Jharkhand court in a 30-year-old murder case, has been untraceable for the past four days.
"This is happening for the first time in our Parliamentary history [a minister on the run]," Swaraj said.
BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra alleged that the prime minister delayed the decision to allow Soren time to secure a bail from the high court.
He said National Democratic Alliance leaders would meet President A P J Abdul Kalam on Monday and demand dismissal of other charge-sheeted ministers, including Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, too.