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Bangaru Laxman resigns

Bangaru Laxman resigned as Bharatiya Janata Party president Tuesday night, party sources said.

Laxman, who was shown by the website tehelka.com as accepting money for allegedly fixing a fictitious defence deal, took the decision to quit his post after a meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the sources said.

Union Defence Minister George Fernandes also offered to resign in the wake of the allegations, but his offer was turned down by the Cabinet.

According to sources close to him, Fernandes made the offer when the Cabinet met for a scheduled meeting. The offer had not been accepted, they added.

Laxman is understood to have told the prime minister that he was willing to face any inquiry in the matter.

Pending the inquiry, he has taken the decision, the sources said.

Laxman, the first Dalit president of the BJP was elected to the post last summer and was credited with attempts to give a new direction to the party by seeking to expand its social base with focus on minorities.

Meanwhile, the government said it was prepared for an inquiry into the expose involving BJP and Samata Party presidents and a number of army officials accused of receiving bribes in a fictitious arms deal.

"The government is ready and willing for a thorough debate in Parliament on the issue and an inquiry, if necessary," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan told reporters here after a nearly three-hour meeting of the Union Cabinet.

Mahajan said the government had nothing to hide. "No one guilty will be spared and no innocent person's reputation will be allowed to be tarnished," he said.

The attention of the Government had been drawn to the Tehelka tapes, he added.

Though the formal cabinet meeting was over in 90 minutes, the ministers continued their discussions informally in the wake of the expose.

The Samata Party, whose president Jaya Jaitley had been named in an expose, said it never provided or discussed any defence deal nor interfered in any aspect of the work of the defence ministry.

"Any claims made by anyone to the contrary is complete falsehood," party general secretary and spokesman Shambhu Srivastava said in a statement.

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