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India ruling party

expets 3 ex-ministers

NEW DELHI: India's ruling Congress party expelled three former ministers on Monday for running against its official candidates in general elections that begin on April 27, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

PTI quoted party official Ved Prakash as announcing that Congress had expelled Madhavrao Scindia, P.Chidambaram and M. Arunachalam for standing against its candidates in the election. Scindia, one of seven ministers who quit Rao's government this year after being named in a bribes-for-favours political corruption scandal, has set up his own party in Madhya Pradesh and is running for parliament in Gwalior, where he is head of the former royal family.

Chidambaram, the former commerce minister and a strong supporter of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao's economic reforms, quit the cabinet last week following a dispute over electoral alliances.

Chidambaram and Arunachalam, a junior minister until last week, opposed Rao's decision to form an electoral pact in their home state of Tamil Nadu with chief minister J.Jayalalitha's All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

Prakash said the party had also expelled S.R. Balasubramaniam, the Congress leader in the Tamil Nadu state assembly, who sided with Chidambaram in the dispute, and Vilasrao Deshmukh, a Congress leader in western Maharashtra who is running as an independent candidate.-Reuter