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Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar will not contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said on Thursday, in the face of mounting controversy over their alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Earlier, Tytler announced his decision to pull out of the Lok Sabha elections, saying he does not want to cause embarrassment to his party.
"My heart says a lot of embarrassment has been caused to the party. I don't think I should fight," he told a press conference in New Delhi, amidst speculation that the party would keep him out of the fray.
Tytler, 65, who had won thrice from the capital, was announced as the party's candidate from the newly-created North-East Delhi seat.
His candidature became a subject of renewed controversy in the wake of a Sikh journalist hurling a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday, protesting against the clean chit to him, given by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The shoe-lobbing incident triggered protests by Sikhs, causing concerns in the Congress, with some sections of the party in the capital and Punjab seeking withdrawal of Tytler's candidature.
Tytler was earlier forced to resign as the minister of state for Overseas Affairs in August 2005, after the Justice Nanavati Commission indicted him in the riots case.
"I take moral responsibility. I don't want to put the party into any embarrassment...I am not going pursue my ticket," he said.
Asked whether there was pressure on him to withdraw from the race, the Congress leader claimed that nobody from the party had approached him asking him to withdraw from the race.
Tytler insisted that he had no involvement in the riots and there was no case against me. He maintained that the affidavits filed against him were 'false' and the persons who claimed to be witnesses had lied.
"There is only investigation on the basis of certain affidavits. If there is something solid in the affidavits, a case would have been made out. There is no truth in the affidavits," he said.
Tytler said he has nothing to do with the case. He also claimed that CBI had given clean chit to him when the National Democratic Alliance was in power.
"In 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister and the CBI had given clean chit to me then also," he said.
"Twelve commissions have been set up to enquire the 1984 riots, including five during the NDA rule. Over 13,500 affidavits were filed but there is no case against me," he said.
He also attacked the media, saying, "You have destroyed me, my family and my children. Whatever may be the reasons for vengeance...I have got justice but I have not got justice from you (media)."