Tuesday, December 20 2005 11:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Former Union Minister and Member of Parliament Fagan Singh Khulaste was today (Dec 20, 2005) suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentary Party over his alleged involvement in the MPLAD scam.

"Faggan Singh Kulaste, party MP from Mandla in Madhya Pradesh, has been suspended from the party with immediate effect," BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters here after the weekly Parliamentary Party meeting, chaired by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Besides being a Whip of the party in Lok Sabha, Kulaste is also the President of the party's Scheduled Tribes Morcha.

Another party MP Chandra Pratap Singh, shown in yesterday's television expose, was already under suspension in the cash-for-query scam, he said.

However, the party decided not to take any action against a third MP Ramswarup Koli, whose name figured in MPLAD scam, as the tapes were not clear and did not show him, Malhotra said.

The party had last week suspended six MPs including one from Rajya Sabha and two former Union Ministers in the wake of the cash-for-questions scam. BJP had also decided to recommend to the Lok Sabha Committee probing the scam the suspension of all its five Members from the Lower House pending inquiry.

One of the suspended former Union Ministers M K Annasaheb Patil is the also the President of the party's Kisan Morcha.

Earlier, addressing the party MPs, Vajpayee asked them to exercise caution in their dealings and warned that corruption will not be tolerated at any cost.

He expressed regret that while the Winter Session of the Parliament began on a positive note for the party with its victories in Bihar Assembly elections and Gujarat civic polls, "bitterness and corruption came to the fore by the end of the session", Malhotra quoted him as saying.

The former Prime Minister expressed confidence that at the party's silver jubilee conference in Mumbai next week, the party would emerge stronger to face any crisis.

He also sought to remove the 'misunderstanding' that the party was opposed to the proposed Constitution Amendment Bill providing for reservation to Scheduled Castes and Tribes in private unaided educational institutions.

"Rather, we want the reservation to be made applicable to all institutions including those run by the linguistic and religious minorities. The Government's move to exempt minority institution from the Bill's purview is a conspiracy to end reservations as now onwards only minority institutions will open new colleges. We will expose this move", Malhotra quoted Vajpayee as saying.