BOMBAY, 10 March 2005 — Sanjay Nirupam, a member of India’s upper house of Parliament, quit Shiv Sena yesterday after refusing to apologize to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Mahajan for alleging that Mahajan was involved in the Reliance shares scam.
According to Shiv Sena sources, Nirupam was ordered to resign by party chief Bal Thackery, following protest from the BJP, a Shiv Sena ally. Nirupam stood his ground and accepted that there had been serious differences between him and Mahajan over the involvement of him and his family members in the Reliance shares scam.
“Yes, I said that there cannot be two sets of law in the country, and that I had demanded in a statement that a thorough investigation be made into Mahajan’s role in the scam,” Nirupam said. A defiant Nirupam said that there was no question of his apologizing to Mahajan or the BJP, and he was quitting the party because Thackeray had asked him to.
Meanwhile, a top Sena leader Narayan Rane told Arab News that it was wrong to label Nirupam as the North Indian face in the Shiv Sena. “ He did not represent North Indians, but was the party’s representative in the Rajya Sabha” he said.
