Dropping of Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar from the Union Cabinet was the “joint decision” of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the Congress said yesterday, dismissing reports that the action was at the insistence of the party president.

“It has appeared in a section of the media that it was at the insistence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi that the two Ministers were dropped. This perception is not correct. The correct position is that it was the joint decision of the Congress President and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” party General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.