Chandigarh, May 8
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today prevailed on his coalition partner BJP to force Chief Parliamentary Secretary Raj Khurana to resign from his post to deflect criticism that the coalition was adopting double standards on corruption.

There was a growing feeling that Khurana’s arrest by the CBI on corruption charges and the alleged involvement of two senior BJP leaders in the case was affecting the credibility of the coalition government.

The CM had stated publicly immediately after Khurana was arrested that the latter should resign from his post, but he did not press the matter after the BJP took a combative stand against the CBI.

But pressure on the SAD began mounting with the CBI expanding its probe and deciding to question Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia and Technical Education Minister Swarna Ram. The SAD felt that more the BJP leadership was put under the scanner, the more the issue of development, which the SAD wants to make its main election plank, would recede into the background.

The Chief Minister persuaded the BJP to agree to ‘sacrifice’ Khurana. The BJP, which had earlier persuaded the Chief Minister to direct the Chief Secretary to pick holes in the CBI investigation besides launching a

media campaign of its own to paint the case as a “political conspiracy”, was also under pressure from its rank and file. The party reportedly received feedback that it was fast losing to the Congress in the urban areas following the bribery charges. Khurana’s resignation submitted to the CM today is in accordance to the party line that he is innocent. Khurana has mentioned in his letter that a “false and frivolous case has been registered by the CBI, Chandigarh, against me”. He goes on to say that although he is not involved in any illegal activity, he is submitting his resignation on “moral grounds”.