The Hindu : Shanta Kumar meets PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

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National

Shanta Kumar meets PM

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 4. The former Union Minister, Shanta Kumar, who called on the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, on Thursday evening is believed to have told him that he had nothing to do with the recent allegations made against the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Venkaiah Naidu.

Apparently, Mr. Kumar, who had sought the appointment — many leaders have been visiting Mr. Vajpayee to inquire about his progress after a minor eye surgery on Sunday — used the occasion to clarify to Mr. Vajpayee that he had written no letter to anybody, nor had he issued any statement or released any note related to the functioning of the Rural Development Ministry when Mr. Naidu headed it. In short, he wanted to make it clear that he had not launched any campaign against Mr. Naidu.

Mr. Kumar was referring to news reports that States such as Andhra Pradesh had been favoured in the matter of disbursement of funds during Mr. Naidu's tenure and that Mr. Kumar had written to the Prime Minister about this.

Mr. Kumar resigned from the Government after the BJP virtually blamed him for its defeat in Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections. The charge was that he had encouraged factionalism against the then Chief Minister, P.K. Dhumal. Mr. Kumar was asked to explain and then he put in his resignation papers.

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