Haryana power minister resigns, blasts Hooda (Second Lead, Correcting second para)

Haryana Power Minister Ajay Singh Yadav Tuesday resigned from the Bhupinder Singh Hooda ministry but said he will remain with the Congress party.

Yadav said he resigned as he was being sidelined in the government.

"There are many issues due to which I have taken this step," he said after submitting his resignation to the chief minister.

Yadav said Hooda refused to accept his resignation. "He told me he won't accept it and that I should reconsider the decision.

"I have taken a decision... The party high command will decide on my future. I will abide by the high command's decision," he said, referring to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Yadav is a senior Congress leader from southern Haryana. He was minister for power, forests and environment.

His resignation came just before the Haryana assembly elections due in October.

"I have been associated with the Congress and will continue to do that," he said. "I am a loyalist of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and I am ready to accept any responsibility she gives me."

He charged Hooda with discrimination against most areas of the state other than Hooda's home district Rohtak and the adjoining districts of Sonipat and Jhajjar.

"Only Rohtak, Sonipat and Jhajjar have seen development in the Hooda government. People in our areas question us about development and jobs but we were helpless.

"There is discrimination against our areas in the matter of jobs," Yadav said.

The minister said he had contemplated resigning two years back but was advised not to do so.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress won only one of the 10 seats.

Yadav complained that although he was a minister, files related to appointment and transfer of senior officers of his departments were not being sent to him.

"I am not leaving the Congress," said Yadav, who was a minister in the Hooda government since March 2005.