UPA-II runs into railgate

Bansal refuses to quit after nephew accepts bribe for rail post, lobbies for support

The floodgates of corruption seem to have opened up on the Manmohan Singh-led UPA-2 government.

Even before the embers of Coalgate could cool, the government received another body blow with railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew, Mr V. Singla, being arrested Friday night on bribery charges.

He allegedly struck a deal with railway board member Mahesh Kumar to make him the man in charge of the most lucrative “electrical” unit.

The deal was allegedly struck for a total of `10 crore of which `2 two crore has already been paid. The CBI has so far been able to recover only `90 lakh. So far, six persons, including Mr Singla, Mr Mahesh Kumar, middlemen Sandip Goyal and Manjunath and two delivery boys have been arrested.

Mr Bansal has remained defiant and has refused to step down. On Saturday, the Congress officially came out in support of the railway minister with party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi flaying the BJP-led Opposition, saying, “For those who are demanding his resignation, it has become a disease.”

However, with a trust deficit haunting the party, the Congress “could change its stance anytime and ask Mr Bansal to put in his papers”, sources said.

For the Congress, the controversy could not have come at a worse time. Not only is Karnataka going to the polls on Sunday, but the Central Bureau of Investigation is also set to submit a fresh affidavit on the Coalgate scam to the Supreme Court, which is now breathing fire on the government for its alleged attempt to change the draft probe report.

Mr Bansal, who kept dodging the media throughout Saturday, met the Prime Minister and later appeared before the Congress core committee to offer an explanation. He tried to distance himself from the bribery scam.

Mr Bansal also reportedly told the party high command that he would like to “offer an explanation in Parliament”.