Jayanthi Natarajan to quit Congress today, blames Rahul for her exit

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Jan 30, 2015: In a big blow to the Congress, senior party leader and former Union minister Jayanthi Natarajan is expected to quit the party on Friday.

 

As per reports, the former union environment minister is expected to hold a press conference at 12:30 pm to formally announce her decision.

Jayanthi has reportedly written a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in which she has alleged a motivated campaign against her in the party.

Jayanthi, environment minister in the the UPA cabinet, wrote in the letter that she was forced to reject big-ticket projects upon receiving specific requests from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on environmental clearances. The projects were denied clearances despite being favoured by then prime minister Manmohan Singh and other Cabinet colleagues.

As per the letter details of which have been revealed by a leading English daily, Jayanthi claimed that she became a victim of a “vicious, false and motivated” media campaign by certain individuals in the party after Rahul Gandhi changed his stance from being pro-environment to being corporate-friendly ahead of last year’s Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress leader blamed Rahul’s aides for planting stories in the media that sought to project her resignation as environment minister not aimed at “party work”.

She also accused Rahul of interference in day-to-day functioning of the UPA-2 government under Manmohan Singh.

“I received specific requests (which used to be directives for us) from Shri Rahul Gandhi and his office forwarding environmental concerns in some important areas and I took care to honour those requests,” she says in the letter, as per the daily.

Jayanthi says environmental clearance to Vedanta for bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills in Odisha was denied at the request of Rahul Gandhi to protect “the interests of tribals”. This despite the fact that the minister was under pressure from Cabinet colleagues to grant the clearance.

She also alleged interference from the Congress vice-president in projects of the Adani group, and said, “In fact, you (Sonia Gandhi) have yourself conveyed your concern in this regard in letters written to me in several cases, including the stalled GVK power project regarding Dhari Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh, the Lavasa project in Maharashtra, Nirma cement plant in Gujarat and in several other cases I was given specific input to make my decision.”

Jayanthi had resigned in December 2013, months before the May 2014 General Elections. The Congress had then claimed that Jayanthi would instead focus on party work.

 

Courtesy: Zeenews