Shashi Tharoor out

Shashi Tharoor was asked to resign as the Congress did not want to face an embarrassment in Parliament trying to defend a weak case. Moreover, the Congress core group felt that the govt had nothing to do with the IPL.

Finally it was a tweet that proved to be Shashi Tharoor’s undoing. A week after IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi used the social networking site to make public little-known details of the IPL Kochi franchise ownership, including Tharoor’s close friend Sunanda Pushkar’s stake in it, the Minister of State, External Affairs, put in his papers on Sunday.

After the two-hour-long meeting of the Congress Core Group at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence had ended, Tharoor — who had repeatedly and consistently protested his innocence — drove to 7, Race Course Road, in a beacon-less vehicle and submitted his resignation. Late in the night, President Pratibha Patil said it had been accepted.

Tharoor had earlier offered to resign in the morning, when he had been summoned by the PM to explain his alleged role in the IPL Kochi controversy. Before the Core Group meeting in the evening, the PM and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had a one-on-one discussion over the explanation offered by the junior minister.

When the Core Group, comprising Singh, Sonia, her political secretary Ahmed Patel, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister A K Antony met in the evening, there was unanimity about the need to sack Tharoor to prevent any further embarrassment to the government.

Shortly after the meeting, Tharoor called on the PM to submit his resignation letter, in which he stated that he was resigning to save any embarrassment to the government and the party.