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| Tharoor resigns | | | ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor has resigned. He was summoned to 7, Race Course Road residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here this evening for the second time today. His chauffeur driven car did not have a red beacon light tonight. And his face looked fallen when he last went to tender his resignation to the Prime Minister.
Later, a Government statement said that Shashi Tharoor has tendered his resignation to Prime Minister which has been accepted by Manmohan Singh who has forwarded it to President Pratibha Patil.
The decision to ask him to resign came after a nearly two-hour-long meeting of top Congress brass - Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram and AK Antony at Prime Minister's residence. Before the last three could join the meeting, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh met alone for about half-an-hour to discuss mainly the situation arisen due to Kochi IPL cricket team controversy.
Tharoor has been at its centre. And both Opposition and media have been blaming him for about a week now for backing Kochi team's bid to enter IPL cricket through his close friend Sunanda Pushkar.
Earlier in the day, Tahroor was first summoned by Prime Minister. The troubled Minister discussed the IPL controversy with Manmohan Singh for about 50 minutes where he is believed to have clarified the extent of his involvement in the Kochi IPL affair which, according to him, did not entailed any impropriety. He is also understood to have offered to resign to ward off embarrassment to Government and the party.
It took extraordinarily long for top Congress leaders to arrive a decision on Tharoor's fate. Yet until late tonight there was no confirmation that Tharoor had resigned or not. Expectations have been on about his resignation which remained just a formality since a decision had already been arrived at by all those present today at meeting held at Prime Minister's residence.
On a day of brisk political developments Tharoor's friend Pushkar announced giving up of her 19 percent equity out of the free stocks of the Kochi IPL franchise consortium's stakes, saying that she would no longer be associated with the Rendezvous Sports World Limted, the Mumbai-based company that led the bid on behalf of the consortium. She blamed a media smear campaign for her decision
Sources say that the first exit of a Minister from Manmohan Singh's team in his second term in office has been a foregone conclusion. This was decided to save Government from Opposition attack in Parliament when it meets tomorrow.
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