Cauvery heat claims first political victim in Ambareesh

Bangalore, Feb 14 (UNI) A heckled Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Congress leader M H Ambareesh today resigned from the Union Ministry and the Lok Sabha, claiming that the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal had been ''unfair'' to Karnataka in its final verdict.

Succumbing to pressure from his constituency people, the actor-turned-politician, who was gheraoed by lawyers when he came to participate in a function in Karnataka High Court here, announced his resignation.

He told the lawyers and later the audience at a function, got up to release a special cover and cancellation of the Postal department to commemorate the golden jubilee of the High Court, that he had quit from both the Ministry and the Lok Sabha and was no more a Minister.

Mr Ambareesh said he had faxed his resignation letters to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, besides a copy to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Holding that the Tribunal had caused ''injustice'' to the State, he complimented the lawyers for taking up the cause of the State.

His move caught the Congress circles in the State unawares.

Mr Ambareesh, representing Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, the hotbed of the Cauvery agitation, was inducted as an Union Minister in the last Cabinet expansion.

Though there had been a demand from the people of Mandya for his resignation, he had been maintaining that he was prepared to do so if it would help the cause of the State.

The State had been witnessing widespread protests after the February five Tribunal award, which directed Karnataka to release 192 tmc ft of water to Tamil Nadu, pegging the State's requirement at 270 tmc ft as against 419 tmc ft of the lower riparian State.

The 'rebel star', who was elected from the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency for a third time in 2004, had led a procession of cine artistes against the award in the city yesterday.

UNI