Raja replaces Maran as IT minister

Minister of State for Home S Regupathy gets environment; Kalam accepts Maran's resignation.

Environment Minister A Raja was today given charge of the Communications and Information Technology Ministry in place of Dayanidhi Maran, who was forced by his party, the DMK, to resign on the charge of indiscipline.

The prime minister shifted Minister of State for Home S Regupathy to the environment ministry as a minister of state. The prime minister, who decided not to have a full-fledged Cabinet minister, will be looking after the ministry.

Raja, 44, is a qualified lawyer and an MP from the Perambalur reserved constituency. This is his third term in the Lok Sabha.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique here said that on the advice of the prime minister, President APJ Abdul Kalam has accepted the resignation of Maran from the Council of Ministers with immediate effect.

Maran was forced by the DMK to resign in the wake of a family divide triggered by a survey published by Dinakaran, a newspaper owned by Maran's elder brother Kalanidhi, which resulted in violence in Madurai.

Government sources indicated that Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, could be sent to the Rajya Sabha in the June elections, after which some changes might be effected in the Cabinet.

Kanimozhi, however, said she was not joining the Union Cabinet and did not have any plan to join active politics. "I am not joining the Union Cabinet...I don't have any intention to enter active politics," she told PTI when asked if she would be contesting the biennial Rajya Sabha elections from Tamil Nadu.

According to PTI, bitter political rivalry in Tamil Nadu today took centre stage in the Rajya Sabha as AIADMK members raised the issue of the attack on the office of Dinakaran, leading to adjournment of the House in the pre-lunch sitting.