New Delhi, May 10: Railway minister Pawan Bansal was today sacked on corruption charges and law minister Ashwani Kumar tendered his resignation late at night after failing to weather the storm over interference in the CBI investigations into the coal-block allocation scandal.

Although Bansal’s survival was out of question, it required a lot of political jostling at the top as the Congress leadership was confused both about its strategy and timing. The deadlock in Parliament, the Karnataka Assembly election and the controversy over the law minister complicated the situation, forcing a costly delay in the decision-making process.

But Congress president Sonia Gandhi called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after resolving the Karnataka issue where the selection of the chief minister was a tricky task, and emphasised the need for immediate decision. Some key leaders had contended that the best option would be to drop him in a cabinet shuffle but the mounting political cost involved in dragging the controversy forced Sonia to press for an early decision.

The Congress gave ample indication of the party’s mind at its official briefing at 4pm, asserting that “no one who has done any wrong would be spared”. The new spokesperson, Bhakta Charan Das, was sent to deliver a clear message that the party wanted railway minister Bansal to go, though he was a little ambiguous on Kumar, pointing out that the court was hearing this matter.

Bansal finally met the Prime Minister in the evening and submitted his resignation.

Although the party avoided announcing the name of Bansal’s replacement, sources revealed Karnataka leader and Union labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge would be given the job. The Congress had got the railway ministry after 17 years and had promised radical reforms which could not happen under the ministers of other parties like Lalu Yadav, Mamata Banerjee and Mukul Roy, but ended up in this ignominious disaster.

Bansal was handpicked by the Prime Minister because he was seen as progressive, hardworking and honest.

Bansal’s fall has come as a shock to the Congress. Risen from the ranks, he was the president of the Punjab Youth Congress and one of the most prominent and respectable faces of the Congress in Parliament. First brought to the Rajya Sabha in 1984, Bansal won four Lok Sabha elections from the prestigious Chandigarh seat in 1991, 1999, 2004 and 2009. He has been Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, held portfolios like finance (minister of state), parliamentary affairs and water resources before being moved to the railways.

None knew then that the person who headed the select parliamentary committee to examine the allegations against some MPs who took money to ask questions would himself be thrown out of the ministry on a charge of corruption.

Bansal is now staring at a protracted legal battle and may be denied a ticket to contest his parliamentary seat in the next election if he doesn’t come out clean.

The party leadership refused to talk about the law minister today but there were hints that he would be shifted to some other ministry in the cabinet shuffle.

Senior leaders have been contending that Kumar had only been indiscreet and his conduct didn’t fall in the category of moral turpitude. But no leader was willing to assert publicly that he would not be sacked.

There were whispers about differences among the leadership on his fate and clarity is expected in a few days.