Ashwani Kumar may have to carry the coal basket

The Congress is under pressure to drop law minister Ashwani Kumar but the high command has yet to make up its mind.

Asked whether Mr Kumar is staying or going following the apex court’s comments on the Coalgate issue, highly placed sources on Tuesday said “no decision” had been taken.

Congress MPs and party officials privately feel that Mr Kumar is on his way out but the “crisis managers” fear that his removal would boost the Opposition’s morale ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and also influence the Karnataka Assembly polls on May 5.

The Congress is confident of returning to power in Karnataka. But how long can the party defend Mr Kumar, and at what cost, is the question.

The corruption issue has already united a divided Opposition inside Parlia-ment. The CPM may not want to attack the Prime Minister directly, but its strong position on coal block and 2G spectrum allocations may not help the Congress or Dr Manmohan Singh.

The BJP-led NDA’s main target is not Mr Kumar, but the PM and it will intensify the attack on him if Mr Kumar steps down.

UPA-2 has already had three law ministers — M. Veerappa Moily, Salman Khurshid and Mr Kumar. If Mr Kumar goes, he would be the fourth in the fourth year of UPA-2.

Reacting to the apex court’s observations, Dr Singh said, “I have not studied the court’s observations. Whatever action is called for will be taken after studying it.”

The issue came up for discussion in a meeting of the Congress core group where a view is said to have emerged that government will await the May 8 hearing of the Supreme Court before taking a final view on Mr Kumar, sources said. At the meeting, party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary said, “We go by what the highest court of the country says... We don’t comment on what the court has said.”