Maran quits Cabinet under DMK pressure

Union IT and Communications Minister Dayandhi Maran resigned tonight. The move came after his party, the DMK, decided to seek his removal from the Cabinet and serve him a notice asking why he should not be expelled from the primary membership of the party.

Rejecting the charge that he had betrayed the DMK, Maran said he was ready to quit the Cabinet and the party if it satisfied the family members of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, an apparent reference to the DMK chief's two sons.

Maran, who spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before faxing his resignation to him, said in a statement that he had not "even thought of betraying Karunanidhi or the party."

"I will not even think on those lines till I am alive. I have been brought up like that by my grandfather Karunanidhi and my father Murasoli Maran," he said.

Earlier, the party's administrative committee, which met at the DMK headquarters in the evening, passed resolutions to this effect. The resolutions accused Maran of acting in violation of party discipline and tarnishing its image.

"The approach and activities of Dayanidhi Maran, who is holding the IT and Communications portfolio on behalf of the DMK, have tended to destroy party discipline and he has also been acting in a manner detrimental to the party's image. Therefore, this administrative committee asks President Karunanidhi and General Secretary K Anbazhagan to take immediate steps to have him removed from the Union Cabinet," a party statement said.

For the same reason, the committee said a decision on Maran's responsibilities in the party, including his primary membership, would be taken after obtaining his reply to the notice.

The action against Maran was expected as soon as it was announced late on Saturday night that the DMK would convene an emergency meeting of its administrative committee, comprising district secretaries, leaders of various wings of the party, all MPs and ministers "� to discuss the issue.

Maran's fate appeared to have been sealed when Chief Minister and DMK President M Karunanidhi accused the newspaper run by Maran's brother, Kalanidhi Maran, of trying to create confusion among party members by conducting dubious opinion polls on political issues, including one that related to a possible successor to Karunanidhi.

Karunanidhi has backed Azhagiri and appeared to justify the violence indulged in by his supporter and blamed on Dinakaran's opinion polls. None of the resolutions made any reference to the violence perpetrated by DMK's Madurai members and supporters.

For Maran, this is a great setback as the Union portfolio was procured exclusively for him by his grand-uncle, Karunanidhi. He was seen as the leader's blue-eyed boy and became the principal interlocutor between the chief minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

It remains to be seen whether the DMK would seek to retain the IT and Communications portfolios.

PTI also reported that Maran was "holidaying" at the hill station Udhagamandalam and was not immediately available for comments on the decision taken by his party to get him sacked from the cabinet. The agency also attributed news of his resignation to Sun TV.

Maran had arrived at Udhagamandalam, about 90 km from Coimbatore on a holiday trip with his family on Saturday afternoon and was staying at a private bungalow.

Presspersons and cameramen have been waiting for a long time before the gates of the bungalow to get Maran's reaction, police sources said.