Textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran put in his papers on Thursday, yielding to the persistent clamour for his removal over the CBI’s probe into allegations that he arm-twisted the promoter of mobile service provider Aircel as Union telecom minister to sell out to Malaysian telecom firm Maxis. Coming after his DMK colleague A Raja was forced to quit, Maran’s resignation underlined the UPA’s continuing vulnerabilities on the issue of corruption when it has caught the popular imagination, and heightened prospects of an early shake-up of the Union Cabinet. Maran submitted his resignation to the PM when he called on him in the afternoon just after the meeting of the Union Cabinet. This is the second time that Maran has quit the UPA government, having earlier been withdrawn from the Cabinet by the DMK. Although there was no official confirmation of his resignation, sources said Maran told his colleagues in the Cabinet that he had decided to quit realizing that his continuation in the government had become untenable because of the investigation into the charge that he had forced Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran to sell his company to Maxis. “It is over now,” he told a Cabinet colleague. His papers are likely to be forwarded to President Pratibha Patil after her return from Hyderabad on Friday. Patil’s return is being awaited more for the anticipated reshuffle. Maran’s resignation adds the textiles ministry to portfolios like railways, civil aviation and telecom which are without full-time ministers. Corporate affairs minister Murli Deora has also offered to quit, boosting the chances of the ministerial reshuffle being undertaken by early next week. Maran’s resignation contrasts sharply with that of Raja’s. Unlike in the case of the jailed former telecom minister who had to be prised out of the government in the wake of the CAG’s damning indictment, the outgoing textiles minister resigned without a nudge from the Congress. This was confirmed by DMK boss and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, who denied that anyone in the UPA had got in touch with him ahead of Maran’s resignation. “I did not speak with Sonia Gandhi or anyone last night,” Karunanidhi told reporters in Chennai.
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