Corporate Affairs Minister Murli Deora has submitted his resignation from the union cabinet ahead of a reshuffle expected soon. A senior office-bearer of the Congress said Deora handed his resignation to party president Sonia Gandhi last week and is learnt to have pushed for son Milind Deoras inclusion as minister of state in the council of ministers. Milind is a second-time MP from South Mumbai. When contacted,Deora declined comment on his resignation. All that he said was that he had already done a five-year stint as Cabinet minister and that he was getting on in age. The Congress office-bearer,who did not wish to be named,said Deora was also piqued over the manner in which his successor S Jaipal Reddy handled the media on the draft report of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG),which pointed out several violations in the execution of exploration contracts by the petroleum ministry between 2006 and 2008. Deora was petroleum minister between January 2006 and January 2011 before he was moved to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in a reshuffle. According to the Congress leader,Deora wanted the media to be told by the petroleum ministry that it was he who had asked the CAG in 2007 to audit exploration spending in the Krishna-Godavari block operated by Reliance Industries Ltd,Rajasthan block by Cairn India and Panna-Mukta & Tapti fields by the BG Group. Deora,the Congress leader said,had been asserting to key party office-bearers that it was he who had assured the CAG in August 2009 that it would get unfettered access to the accounts of these operators after the CAG complained that RIL was reluctant in providing access to records. According to the Congress leader,Deora was likely be retained as an office-bearer in the party.
