Sack Hooda if he does not resign: Naidu

After the Punjab and Haryana High Court Thursday disqualified five MLAs under the anti-defection law, Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu demanded the immediate resignation of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Hooda should be sacked by the governor if he does not resign, Naidu said while addressing the media here.

"Hooda has no moral or constitutional right to remain the chief minister of Haryana. After Punjab and Haryana High Court's Thursday decision, it has been proved that he was leading a minority government for the last five years," Naidu said.

"Though there are only a few days left for the elections, I request the Haryana governor to take an appropriate step regarding the issue," he said.

The high court Thursday held that the merger of five Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) MLAs with the Congress in Oct 2009 was unconstitutional.

The order has come on a petition filed by HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi.

The five defectors - Satpal Sangwan, Rao Narender Singh, both ministers, Vinod Bhyana, chief parliamentary secretary and MLAs Zile Ram Sarma and Dharam Singh Chhokar - had joined the Congress to stabilise Hooda's minority government in 2009.

The defectors have been disqualified under the anti-defection law.

"There is a shortage of judges and courts in many states of the country, so it takes time to reach any decision. The state government worked with these legislators for almost the whole tenure. We need to set a deadline for cases under the anti-defection law also as is the provision in some criminal cases to reach a conclusion within the time frame of one year," Naidu added.

He said that Hooda's corrupt government is all set to go and the Congress party will not win even 10 seats in the coming election.

He said that the BJP will form the governments in Haryana and Maharashtra and will probe all the 'scams' including allegations about the land deals of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra.