The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday welcomed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's directive to Coal Minister Shibu Soren to resign from the Union council of ministers, but said it was a "belated" decision.
 

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"It is very good that the prime minister has taken this decision. But if this wisdom had dawned on him four days back, it could have helped avoid ugly scenes witnessed in Parliament," senior party leader Sushma Swaraj said.

Soren, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued by a Jharkhand court in a 30-year-old murder case, has been untraceable for the past four days.

"This is happening for the first time in our Parliamentary history [a minister on the run]," Swaraj said.

BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra alleged that the prime minister delayed the decision to allow Soren time to secure a bail from the high court.

He said National Democratic Alliance leaders would meet President A P J Abdul Kalam on Monday and demand dismissal of other charge-sheeted ministers, including Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, too.