Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jayanthi Natarajan quit the party on Friday shortly after she wrote a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in which she has alleged a motivated campaign against her in the party. In a huge blow to the Congress, former Union Minister Jayanthi Natarajan has decided to quit the party while making a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi and accusing him of sending "specific requests" on environmental clearances for projects. Natarajan has sent a letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, in which she has charged that she was "wrongly vilified" and "defamed" in the media by sections of the party. "I received specific requests from Shri Rahul Gandhi and his office forwarding environmental concerns in some important areas and I took care to honour those requests," Natarajan says in the letter. The letter said the minister was asked to resign in less than 100 days before the country went to general elections. The four-time Congress MP's decision has added to the overflowing cup of woes of the Congress and triggered a barrage of attack by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on the style of governance of the United Progressive Alliance regime. Natarajan is the second leader in Tamil Nadu to quit the party after G K Vasan who has already floated a party.
