No pressure on PM on petition against Chawla: Cong

New Delhi, Apr 5 (UNI) The Congress today denied BJP's charge that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was holding up petition forwarded to him by President A P J Abdul Kalam seeking the removal of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla.

"The Prime Minister has received the petition forwarded to him and he will soon take a decision without fear or favour " Congress Spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan said.

Talking to reporters here, she also denied that there was any pressure from Congress President Sonia Gandhi to hold up the petition.

The NDA had submitted a petition, signed by 206 MPs, to the President seeking the removal of Mr Chawla for allegedly accepting donations from Congress MPs for the NGO floated by his wife.They had also cited "glaring examples"of his proximity to 10 Janpath,official residence of the Congress President. The President had since referred the petition to the Prime Minister .

Wondering why the Prime Minister was not sending the petition to the Chief Election Commissioner for necessary action, the BJP earlier today threatened it would have no option but to visit the President again in this connection if the Prime Minister did not refer the petition to the Chief Election Commissioner.

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