No question of Chidambaram quitting: Cong

Top sources in the party indicated the matter would be resolved shortly and the issue was unlikely to snowball into some major crisis unless there is something very adverse from the Supreme Court,which is hearing the matter.

Khurshid and Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy had held an hour-long deliberation with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last night.

Mukherjee and Chidambaram separately had met Gandhi last evening during which they explained their respective positions on the note.

Sources said a final opinion would be taken after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns from the US here tonight.

At the AICC briefing,party spokesperson Rashid Alvi downplayed the controversy saying,”The cup appears to be hotter than the tea. The tea is not that hot…Chidambaram has committed no mistake. There is no question of his resignation.”

He said the controversy was unnecessarily being built around the note while matter was not so big. Khurshid had yesterday said the note had no life and mere a summary. Alvi lashed out at Janta Party chief Subramanian Swamy saying,”His (Swamy’s) thinking has always been destructive,” and the whole country knows “the kind of politics he does.”

Earlier,Swamy said that the CBI probe into the 2G scam was “truncated” and large number of documents brought by him on the alleged culpability of Chidambaram,who was then the finance minister,has not been denied.

Attacking BJP,Alvi said,”BJP does not look in its own backyard and keeps on heaping allegations on others” when asked for his reaction on the Opposition party’s demand for the home minister’s resignation and CBI investigation into his role.

He,however,refused to comment when asked whether the government did not do proper ground work that CBI raised objection in the court to its stand that the agency will be looking into the documents placed by Swamy and file a status report before the court.

He said that CBI was an independent body that it was free to take a decision it wants into any investigation.

His also evaded an answer when asked about former Telecom Minister A Raja’s plea in the court to recall its order of not granting bail to 2G scam accused before the framing of charges in view of delay in the proceedings in the trial court.

“I will not be commenting outside the court on what is being said inside the court,” he merely said.