All the 15 opposition members in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) look into the irregularities in the allocation of the 2G spectrum, today demanded the outster of its Chairman P C Chacko. The members belonging to BJP, JD(U), AIADMK, DMK, Left parties, Trinamool Congress and BJD met the Lok Sabha Speaker Mrs Meira Kumar and expressed no confidence in Mr Chacko accusing him of highly partisan, unfair and prejudicial conduct. In their memorandum, they also charged Mr Chacko with the leakage of the draft report of the JPC.

Meanwhile, countering the opposition move, the Congress members also held a meeting with the Speaker demanding the removal of three BJP members–Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Ravi Shankar Prasad–from the JPC citing conflict of interest. In a letter, the Congress alleged that the BJP members were instrumental in taking major decisions relating to the telecom sector from 1998 to 2004 as Ministers in the erstwhile NDA government, which is also being investigated by the JPC. The letter pointed out that Jaswant Singh was the Chairman of a high level group on telecom in 1998 and later headed a Group of Ministers on telecom in which Yashwant Sinha and Ravi Shankar Prasad were members.

Reacting to the demand for his removal, Mr. Chacko said, it is the Speaker's discretion to decide on the issue. He said, he will continue to do his job and the JPC will meet soon after consultations with other members. He felt it would the best if the draft report is adopted without voting.

Leader of Oppsotion in the Lok Sabha, Mrs Sushma Swaraj said, Mr Chacko has no moral right to continue after a majority of JPC members expressed no confidence in him.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechuri said, his party would submit a note of dissent on the JPC report which he termed as biased.

Earlier, a meeting of the JPC scheduled to be held today to adopt the draft report, was postponed following the death of a sitting Trinamool Congress member Ambica Banerjee.