New Delhi, July 24
The BJP appeared on a collision course with the UPA Government today after Gujarat Minister Amit Shah, a trusted lieutenant of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, resigned in the wake of the CBI charge-sheeting him in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case,

The resignation was announced by the chief minister himself, who was here for the National Development Council (NDC) meeting. “As I landed here in Delhi, I have information that Amit Shah’s resignation has reached my residence in Gandhinagar. I will accept it on returning to Gandhinagar and complete the formalities,’’ he told reporters.

Accusing the Congress-led UPA government of ‘misusing’ the CBI and ‘fabricating’ the charges against his close aide, Modi alleged that the whole exercise was part of a ‘conspiracy’ against Gujarat.

Shah, the minister of state for home, resigned a day after the CBI charged him with kidnapping and murder of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Hina Kauser Bi in November 2005. Although he has resigned, Shah’s whereabouts are still not known.

Shah’s resignation prompted the BJP to go on the offensive against the UPA government on the eve of the crucial Monsoon Session of Parliament from Monday. Top BJP leaders, who declined an invitation for lunch from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday, were busy chalking out the party’s strategy on the floor of Parliament. However, it is dawning on the party that the unity in the opposition ranks that was witnessed in the last session of Parliament, may not be on the show this time since the Left parties would certainly not like to be seen siding with the main Opposition party on the Amit Shah issue.

“The Congress needs to learn that the more they try to scratch Modi, it will boomerang on them,’’ BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

The Congress, meanwhile, also looked fully prepared to take up the BJP’s challenge in the Amit Shah case with Home Minister P Chidambaram asserting that the CBI had filed the case against the Gujarat minister as per the direction of the Supreme Court and BJP leader Arun Jaitley, himself a lawyer of repute, should have taken note of it.

“Why this belated and simulated anger? Why express this anger lately? They should have said this in January when the Supreme Court handed over the matter to the CBI,’’ the Home Minister told reporters when asked about the BJP’s allegation that the CBI was being misused by the UPA government to target its opponents.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Amit Shah’s resignation was ‘’too little and too late.’’

Meanwhile, addressing the NDC meeting, the chief minister asked the centre to set up a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe allegation of corruption in the national rural employment guarantee scheme.

He said the mid-term appraisal of the 11th plan has highlighted "corruption, malpractices and misuse" of funds in the scheme.

On the Maoist problem, he said there was a lot of discussion within the government on how it should be tackled but there was no clarity on how the Maoists "get money, weapons and other resources and what are their communication networks".