NEW DELHI: President R. Venkataraman has accepted the resignations of the five ministers who were disqualified from the Lok Sabha under the anti-defection law.
A presidential palace communique dated 20th February said this was done on the advice of prime minister.
The resignation letters were sent to the president late Wednesday night.
The five ministers are: external affairs minister V.C. Shukla Shakeel-Ur-Rehman (health and family welfare) Bhagey Goberdhan (minister of state for human resource development) Sarwar Hussain (food and civil supplies) and Basvaraj Patil (steel and mines).
The removal of the ministers was one of the conditions laid by Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress (I) for continuing its support to the federal minority Janata Dal (S) government of Chandra Shekhar.
The Congress-I had expressed its unhappiness over the continuance of these ministers in office despite being disqualified by Lok Sabha speaker Rabi Ray. Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal too had wanted these ministers to resign.
Ray had disqualified the ministers under anti-defection law for having not voted in favour of former premier V.P. Singh when he faced a confidence vote in the lower house of Parliament last November.
V.PSingh’s National Front government was voted out of power on November 7 and Premier Chandra Shekhar formed the next minority government with the support of the single largest Congress-I party and its allies.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 1, 1991
