Shinde accepts Bhujbals resignation

Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has accepted the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Chagan Bhujbal.

"Bhujbal submitted his resignation to me and I have accepted it," Shinde said. "I have forwarded it to the governor," he added.

Bhujbal, who has faced allegations of involvement in the Telgi stamp paper scam, today announced his resignation owning "moral responsibility" for an attack on a television channel's office here earlier in the day.

The feisty Nationalist Congress Party leader, who had been at the centre of speculation in the last fortnight that he would quit office in the light of scam-related allegations, maintained that the resignation was not connected to the Telgi scandal because he had not done anything wrong.

But he chose to step down from office citing the attack by a group of people, said to be his supporters, on the Zee Television network office, which had telecast a programme critical of him.

He said he came to know that some people, said to belong to his party, had attacked the Zee TV office because there was some programme last night critical of him.

"Even when I was not a minister I was critical of any such attacks on the media or the Opposition. Now when I am the home minister of the state. It is my responsibility to give protection," he said explaining his decision to quit.

The resignation of Bhujbal, who started as a Shiv Sainik and remained in Mumbai politics for long, comes in the backdrop of charges against him that he and his nephew Sameer interfered with the SIT investigations into the scam.

Opposition parties in Maharashtra had been gunning for Bhujbal's head ever since an accused in the scam inspector Dilip Kamath reportedly wrote a letter to the state governor in which he had alleged their interference.

Bhujbal, who got himself admitted to a hospital complaining of uneasiness and chest pain, denied the allegations against him saying it was a conspiracy to tarnish him.

After a lawyer for Telgi met Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani last week and told him that his client had taken the name of Bhujbal as having been involved in the scam, Bhujbal asked Advani to order investigation into the allegation.