After dad's defeat in prez poll, Agatha Sangma to quit?

Updated: Monday, July 23, 2012, 16:40 [IST]

New Delhi, Jul 23: Just a day after her father's defeat in the presidential election, Agatha Sangma offered to resign as Minister of State for Rural Development, informed sources on Monday, Jul 23.

However, sources claimed that Agatha's decision over resignation was related to the controversy between her party NCP and Congress and it had no connection with the result of presidential poll.

Agatha on Monday morning met NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel. After their meeting, sources also informed that both Pawar and Patel asked Agatha to skip her office.

Meanwhile, NCP spokesperson confirmed the news that Pawar and other leaders from his party will not attend the dinner arranged by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in honour of outgoing President Pratibha Patil.

The rift between NCP and Congress is getting murkier day by day over the power row in the UPA government. Both Pawar and Patel decided to pull out of the government and support it from outside in protest against the way the party was treated by Congress.

However, some sources from the party told a different story about Agatha's offer of resignation. According to sources, party units in Chhattisgarh and Odisha complained against her that she had campaigned for her father for the presidential election.

While NCP backed UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee, Sangma was the BJP-backed opposition candidate for the top post. Reports had it that the Agatha issue was likely to come up before the NCP meeting.

Agatha is a member of the Lok Sabha from Tura, a seat represented by her father several times. Her father PA Sangma, a founder member of the NCP, resigned from the party to contest the Presidential elections. Immediately after he declared his intent to contest the election, Pawar had made it clear that there was no question of his party going against the decision of the UPA.

PA Sangma lost the battle to Pranab Mukherjee who will take his oath as the 14th President of India at the Parliament at 11 am on Jul 25.

OneIndia News