Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late Sunday night, the second time in a day, and submitted his resignation. The PM has forwarded Tharoor's resignation to President Pratibha Patil with a recommendation that it may be accepted, PMO spokesman said.
Tharoor reached the Race Course residence of the PM moments after Dr Singh held a meeting of the Congress Core group including Sonia Gandhi.
Tharoor drove into the Race Course residence of the Prime Minister moments after Singh held a meeting of the Congress Core group including Sonia Gandhi.
The meeting discussed continuance of the minister in the wake of controversy over allotment of sweat equity of the value of Rs 70 crore to his friend Sunanda Pushkar by the IPL Kochi franchise.
First Gandhi met Singh one-on-one before the Core Group discussions. Tharoor, whose removal has been demanded by the Opposition on grounds of corruption, had met Singh at noon to give his side of the story.
There was no official word on all these meetings.
Earlier in the day, Tharoor met the Prime Minister for 50 minutes to present his side of the story over the IPL controversy involving him and close friend Sunanda Pushkar, who today gave up her controversial stake in the Kochi franchise.
Tharoor is at the centre of a row regarding the Indian Premier League Kochi franchise business in which Pushkar got sweat equity worth Rs 70 crore.
The issue has turned out to be an explosive crisis for the government with the BJP and communist parties charging the beleaguered Tharoor with corruption.
The BJP today, meanwhile, charged the beleaguered Tharoor with corruption, saying Pushkar's action to surrender her stake was an admission of guilt.
"The surrounding suspicious circumstances outline that he (Tharoor) abused his authority for undue enrichment for his friend (Pushkar)," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Prasad alleged that Pushkar was a front for Tharoor in the IPL deal. "He (Tharoor) is the beneficiary, and that is why in haste all these laws were violated and sweat equity was issued (to her)."
The BJP threatened to stall parliament Monday if the government didn't sack Tharoor.
IPL commissioner Lalit Modi ignited the controversy a week ago when he revealed the ownership pattern of Kochi IPL, stating that Pushkar, who is based in Dubai, owned free equity in Rendezvous Sports World, a member of the consortium that won the Kochi franchise.
Modi accused Tharoor of asking him not to reveal the ownership details -- a charge the minister denied.
Pushkar's lawyer Ashish Mehta announced Sunday -- hours after a television channel claimed that she got the equity in violation of Company Law -- that she was giving up the stake to Rendezvous Sports World.
"I had been looking forward to contributing over the next 10 years to building the team's brand...
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