In a day of high drama, DMK, an ally in the ruling coalition at the centre, suffered yet another blow with the high-profile textiles minister, Dayanidhi Maran, resigning from the cabinet on Thursday.

Maran is the second DMK minister to step down after the then telecom minister A Raja in connection with 2G scam.

Maran, who attended the cabinet meeting on the day, met prime minister Manmohan Singh and put in his papers after consulting DMK chief M Karunanidhi. The DMK patriarch subsequently defended Maran and blamed media activism for the textiles minister’s resignation.

However, till the time of going to press there was no official word either from the prime minister’s office or from Maran himself about the resignation. It was not clear if the prime minister had sent the resignation to president Pratibha Patil for acceptance. Patil, now in Tirupati, was scheduled to return to Delhi on Friday.

Maran’s continuance in the cabinet became untenable after CBI told the Supreme Court the day before that he had coerced a Chennai-based telecom promoter, C Sivasankaran, to sell his stake in Aircel to a Malaysian firm, Maxis, in 2006 during his tenure as telecom minister in UPA-I. A Raja replaced him as telecom minister later.

Maran’s resignation paves the way for a cabinet reshuffle early next week. Though there are speculations that the DMK parliamentary party chief, TR Baalu, may return to the cabinet after a gap of two years, the prime minister may not accommodate him.

In that case, Karunanidhi’s son M Alagiri would be the only cabinet minister from DMK after the reshuffle that may see a major overhaul of portfolios. Two DMK members of Parliament, KS Vijayan, chief whip of the party, and TK Elangovan may be inducted in the council of ministers as ministers of state. In consultation with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the prime minister will also have to lighten the burden of ministers like Sharad Pawar and Kapil Sibal who are holding more than one portfolio.

Apart from finding new and capable hands, the prime minister may have to fill in vacancies that arose after the resignation of A Raja, Prithviraj Chavan and Shashi Tharoor. Chavan moved to Mumbai as Maharastra chief minister. After the recent West Bengal Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress leader and railway minister Mamata Banerjee moved to the state as chief minister. A new railway minister will have to be found. Added to the list now is corporate affairs ministry, from which Murli Deora resigned earlier this week. The textiles ministry also has no cabinet rank minister after Maran’s resignation.

The feeling in the Congress is that major portfolios like finance, home, defence and external affairs may not be disturbed in the reshuffle which will mainly aim at filling vacancies.

The day started with the prime minister asking Baalu to convey to the DMK leadership that Maran could not continue in the cabinet. Baalu is understood to have conveyed this to Karunanidhi who later asked Maran to put in his papers. A cabinet minister told Financial Chronicle that Maran who looked “sad and depressed” during the cabinet meeting returned from home later in the day in his personal car to submit his resignation to the prime minister.

In the cabinet meeting, Maran abstained himself for a brief while when the issue of licences for FM radio channels came up. This is on account of conflict of interest as his brother Kalanidhi Maran runs a media empire that includes FM channels in various languages.

Raja and Karunanidhi's daughter and MP Kanimozhi are currently in Tihar jail for their alleged involvement in the scam. This is the second time Maran quit the cabinet. In 2007 he quit after differences with DMK’s first family.

Earlier this week, the 74-year old corporate affairs minister, Murli Deora, tendered his resignation to Sonia Gandhi and there are reports that he pitched for the inclusion of his son Milind Deora, Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai.

Maran’s resignation failed to silence opposition parties, which said it was “long overdue” and faulted the prime minister for not demanding it earlier. The Congress said that Maran had no option but to resign after the placing of the status report by the CBI in the Supreme Court, pointing out that it was a considered viewpoint of the investigating agency.

Opposition parties, including BJP and AIADMK termed Maran’s resignation as “long overdue” and asked the prime minister to explain why action against “corrupt” ministers was delayed. CBI said that Maran might be questioned in connection with his alleged role in coercing Sivasankaran to sell his stake to a Malaysia-based group.

Meanwhile, members of Apollo Hospitals’ Reddy family, who own stake in Aircel, would be happy to give an explanation about their investment in the telecom company, if sought by the Central Investigation Bureau. “Apollo family members owning stake in Aircel will be happy to give an explanation. However, nobody in the family has been summoned by the CBI till now,” said Sangita Reddy, executive director, operations, Apollo Hospitals told FC.

“Neither Apollo nor its chairman Pratap C Reddy have any stake in Aircel. The stake is owned by joint managing director Suneeta Reddy and husband Dwarakanath Reddy as part of their personal investment. The investment was made with the clearance of Foreign Investment Promotion Board,” said Shobhana Kamineni, executive director, new initiatives, Apollo Hospitals said, talking to FC.

However, both declined to comment on the total investment made by Sindya Securities and Investments promoted by Suneeta Reddy and Dwarakanath Reddy, in Aircel. Meanwhile, Suneeta Reddy could not be reached for communication as she is abroad on an official visit.

Apollo family members own 26 per cent stake in Aircel, which was acquired by Maxis Communication for $1.08 billion.

krsudhaman@mydigitalfc.com

With inputs from Sangeetha G in Chennai