In a bid to avoid replying to questions on whether Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj would be projected as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election, party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar yesterday said that at present the focus should be on the coal blocks allocation scam rather than who would be the next PM of the country.
Javadekar was addressing mediapersosns in the city and spoke on the UPA government’s alleged involvement in the ‘coalgate’ scam. On Saturday, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray had said that Swaraj was the only BJP leader who would make a deserving prime ministerial candidate. The Shiv Sena is one of the BJP’s prominent partners in the NDA. u00a0
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Javadekar claimed that the Congress alone was responsible for the non-functioning of Parliament of late. “We have already demanded that unless there is an impartial investigation in this matter and the coal blocks are not auctioned, we are not ready to let the Parliament function,” Javadekar said.u00a0
He said apart from BJP alliance partners, regional parties and some of the UPA allies, such as the Samajwadi Party (SP), backed the NDA decision to disallow the functioning of both Houses of Parliament. “The Congress is a master in blaming others for its own faults.
Be it the 2G scam or the recent coal scam, Congress has been blaming its alliance partners for the scams. PM Manmohan Singh is the person responsible for the coal scam as the coal block allocation was sanctioned under his leadership,” Javadekar said.
He claimed there was nothing on record to substantiate distribution of coal blocks, which in itself showed that corruption occurred during the allocation of coal blocks to specific companies.
Javadekar said chief ministers of 28 states had already sent a letter to the Centre opposing the allocation of coal blocks. u00a0“The Centre, however, publicised only three letters that were sent by CMs of BJP-ruled states,” Javadekar said.u00a0