N D Tiwari resigns as AP Governor

New Delhi, Dec 26 (PTI) Governor of the southern Indian
state of Andhra Pradesh N D Tiwari Saturday resigned from his
post in the wake of a raging controversy after a sting
operation purportedly showed him in a compromising position
with three women.
86-year-old Tiwari, a former chief minister of the
undivided state of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, sent his
resignation to Indian President Pratibha Patil on "health
grounds", said a press communique from the Raj Bhavan, the
Governor's official residence.
The resignation came a day after Telugu television
channel 'ABN Andhra Jyothi' aired a footage captured in a
sting operation of an elderly man with three women in Raj
Bhavan in a compromising position, which the channel said was
of Tiwari.
The Raj Bhavan denied it and promptly approached the High
Court Friday and got a restraint order on the channel from
telecasting the footage.
The sting operation evoked a string of demands from
political parties, like Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Communist
party of India (CPI) and CPI-marxist and Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), that he be sacked. Women's organisations also
staged demonstrations deploring the Governor's behaviour and
demanded that he step down immediately.
The Congress welcomed the resignation saying Tiwari has
taken the appropriate decision. Party sources said the
Governor of some neighbouring state could be given additional
charge of Andhra Pradesh for some time.

Indications that Tiwari cannot continue in the post
emerged when the Central government sought a report from the
state Chief Secretary on the issue today and highly-placed
Congress sources said that he would have to go in view of the
acute embarrassment he had brought to the organisation.
"I think he has taken an appropriate decision keeping in
view the high standards of public life. We welcome it," All
India Congress Committee (AICC) media department chief
Janardan Dwivedi told reporters in Delhi.
Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed had earlier said that
the High Court is looking into the matter. "Since the matter
is sub-judice, no one should comment upon it".
The Telugu channel's Editor-in-Chief Vemuri Radhakrishna
said they have evidence to back what they have shown. "Let
them serve defamation notice. We are even ready to deal with
the issue".
This is not the first time that Tiwari, also a former
Indiann Minister, has figured in controversies involving
women.
Sometime ago, a lawyer Rohit Shekhar had filed a
paternity suit in Delhi High Court against Tiwari claiming
that he was born out of an intimate relationship between the
Congress leader and his mother Ujwala Sharma. The charge
was, however, denied by the Governor.
The Delhi High Court had rejected the petition on the
ground that Shekhar filed it a long time after becoming a
major and was time-barred. PTI AMR