Even as his resignation from council of ministers was accepted by chief minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday, Rana Gurjit Singh put a brave face and said he has always been a Congressman and will die as a Congressman only.

In a statement, the senior Congress leader and Kapurthala legislator Rana Gurjit Singh said that he accepts the decision of the party high command and the CM with all humility.

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Asserting that he had submitted his resignation on moral grounds, Rana maintained that his stand will soon be vindicated and eventually truth shall prevail.

“Truth cannot be suppressed for long, no matter how strongly and repeatedly a lie may be told”, he said while adding, he had not committed any wrong or any illegal act but had resigned to take wind out of the Opposition sails for its baseless criticism of the government and the CM.

He pointed out, even a judicial commission had found nothing against him. Rana reiterated his gratitude to the party and the CM and said he will continue to serve both with same sincerity, dedication and commitment.

Rana said, he was specially thankful to his supporters who have always been and will always be his strength.

“Whatever I am today in public life is because of the Congress party and my supporters and I will continue to serve them both with same zeal and vigour,” he remarked.

Opp seeks action: Welcoming Gurjit Singh’s ouster from the council of ministers, Opposition parties demanded action against him and other Congress legislators who had bagged contracts for sand mines through single bid.

Leader of the Opposition and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sukhpal Khaira said besides Rana Gurjit, more ruling Congress legislators are involved in sand mining and have managed to secure the contracts for the same through a single bid.

“I will send the names of such legislators to the Congress president Rahul Gandhi for action,” he said adding that the minister had no point in resigning on moral grounds at this juncture as he should have resigned immediately after his involvement in the scam came to the fore in May 2017.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) termed the acceptance of the resignation of Rana Gurjit Singh as too little too late and said the Congress could only wash the taint of the sand mining scam by registering a criminal case against Rana Gurjit and cancellation of all mines allotted to Congress legislators.

Former minister and SAD spokesman Dr Daljit Cheema said it was shocking that chief minister Amarinder Singh had turned a blind eye to the sand mining scam for ten months and had kept giving clean chits to the tainted minister.

“Criminal matters like the sand mining scam should be dealt with on merit by the chief minister. How can government files be shared with Rahul Gandhi? Only party matters can be taken up with the Congress high command,” Cheema said.