Modi should resign immediately: Rathore

Shimla, Oct 27 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Congress General secretary and spokesperson Kuldeep Rathore today demanded that Gujarat Chief Minister Nrainder Modi should resign immediately following his expose as an ''instigator'' of the 2002 Gujarat riots in a sting operation conducted by weekly news magazine Tehelka.

Addressing newspersons here today, he alleged that the sting operation had unveiled the ''hidden communal agenda'' of the BJP and has put the country to shame.

'How can people of a state feel safe whose Chief Minister has been found instigating and helping the rioters', he said, adding that Mr Modi do not have any constitutional right to continue as the Chief Minister and should morally resign immediately.

He said the State Election Committee of the party would meet on November 4 at Himachal Sadan in Delhi under the leadership of state party in charge R K Dhawan, state president Viplov Thakur and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in which names of the candidates for the rest of the 65 assembly constituencies would be discussed and the final nod would be given by the Parliamentary Board Committee of the party.

He said the Congress would soon complain to the State Election Commission about the statement of the BJP leaders in which they have threatened the employees and officers in Gujarat.

Without commenting on the recent orders of the Election Commission (EC) in which it has directed the chief secretary of the state not to pay for the helicopter used by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and state party incharge R K Dhawan in their visit to EC in New Delhi to get the poll shifted, he said, following the orders of the EC, the state Congress would bear the expenses for the visit.

UNI