By IANS,
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Governor N.D. Tiwari resigned Saturday citing “health grounds” after allegations of his involvement in a sex scandal.
“N.D. Tiwari submitted his resignation to President Pratibha Patil on health grounds,” said a brief statement from Raj Bhavan, the official residence of the governor.
ABN channel, owned by Telugu daily Andhra Jyothi, Friday showed explicit clippings purported to be of Tiwari involved in a sex romp. It claimed that the pictures were taken in the Raj Bhavan.
President’s secretary Christy Fernandez confirmed that Tiwari had quit.
“Yes, he sent in his resignation to President Pratibha Patil,” Fernandez told IANS.
A day after the channel showed pictures of an elderly man purported to be Tiwari with three young women in bed, the pressure was mounting on the 86-year-old leader to quit on moral grounds.
Sources said Tiwari resigned after the central government asked him to quit on receipt of a report from state government over the alleged sex scandal.
Earlier, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi discussed the developments with senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee and A.K. Antony in New Delhi.
The channel quoted Radhika, a woman from Uttarakhand, as saying that she sent the young women to the Raj Bhavan on Tiwari’s request through his aide.
She claimed that she was “exposing” the governor as he failed to keep his word to provide her a mining licence in Andhra Pradesh.
On a petition by the governor’s officer on special duty Aryandra Sharma, the state high court Friday ordered the channel to stop the telecast of the tape and adjourned hearing in the case to Dec 30.
The governor’s office issued a statement Friday evening terming the story as “malicious”. It alleged that the tapes were fabricated and untruthful.
Andhra Jyothi management denied that the tapes were fabricated and said it was trying to get the court stay order revoked.
The scandal rocked the state at a time when it was already embroiled in violent agitation over separate statehood to Telangana.
According to sources, the central government was already looking for a replacement to Tiwari in view of the constitutional crisis triggered by the en masse resignations of the legislators over the Telangana issue.
The sources pointed out that possible President’s Rule would require an active governor and in view of Tiwari’s poor health the government was trying to find a successor.
Tiwari, who has been chief minister of two states (Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) and held important portfolios in union governments, was even a contender for prime ministership when he was upstaged by P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1991.