Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath has expressed confidence that former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who was summoned by the CBI in connection with the coal blocks allocation scam case, will come out clean.

“Manmohan Singh is not only going to come out clean, but absolutely clean,” Mr Kamal Nath told reporters here on Thursday.

He was in the city to take part in the convocation of the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) near Shamshabad.

“His honesty and integrity is known to all and it was never questioned by any political party or leader. We all know what the contribution of Dr Manmohan Singh is to our country as the finance minister who launched economic reforms in 1990s and as PM. We have utmost faith in the judiciary and we are absolutely confident that he will come out clean,” Mr Kamal Nath said.

He stated that the Congress will fully support Mr Manmohan Singh and will stand by him in this hour of crisis.

“The party will support Manmohan, both morally and legally. We will fight it out at in all forums,” Mr Kamal Nath said.

When reminded about him criticising Mr Singh last year for his ‘inaction’ in taking corrective steps to prevent 2G and coal block scams despite bringing it to his notice Mr Kamal Nath clarified, “I never said he was responsible. What I said was that he might had made a mistake by not acting on those issues even after alerting him.”

Mr reiterated that the time has come for Rahul Gandhi to take over the party's reins to avoid confusion among party leaders and the cadre over 'twin power centres' indirectly referring to party president Sonia Gandhi.

"Rahul Gandhi who is on a short break now will be back in a day or two. The time has come for him to take over the reins of the party. This will clear the confusion among party workers over its leadership," he added.