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Ramesh Menon in New Delhi
Jaya Jaitley has resigned as president of the Samata party.
Her resignation comes in the wake of the expose by tehelka.com on corruption in defence deals, which also led to paralysis in Parliament for the last two days.
Speaking to rediff.com soon after her resignation, she said, "I hope to spare the party from unnecessary attack and denigration, and I am doing this to save the party. And I am appointing V V Krishna Rao, the vice-president of the party, as acting president of the party."
She said she did not treat the Tehelka.com tapes as evidence against her. "There was no money transaction at all, as I had said that the money could be given as donation to the party. But the money was never given," she added.
"Earlier, I had stated that I won't resign but it was a subsequent decision to strengthen my party," she said.
She refused to comment about George Fernandes. However, she said the tehelka tapes were nothing short of blackmail and a design to block Parliament and destroy the nation.
Another casualty was R K Jain, former Samata Party treasurer who was also caught on camera by tehelka.com, who too has put in his papers.
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