High-profile Communication and Information & Technology Minister Minister Dayananidhi Maran tonight resigned from the Union cabinet after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam decided to get him removed in the wake of the severe embarrassment to Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, following the exposure of chinks in the party's first family.
Dayanidhi Maran sent his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late on Sunday night.
The resignation by Maran, the 41-year-old son of the late Murasoli Maran, nephew of Karunanidhi, came under mounting demand within the party four days after Dinakaran, a daily owned by the Union minister's elder brother Kalanidhi Maran, was attacked in Madurai in which three people lost their lives.
Earlier in the day, a meeting of DMK's administrative committee adopted a resolution urging Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to remove Maran.
"As Dayananidhi Maran's recent approach and activities have violated party discipline and have defamed the party, the administrative committee has decided to urge party president M Karunanidhi and general secretary E Anbazhagan to take necessary steps to get him removed from the Union cabinet", the resolution said.
The more than two-hour-long meeting also adopted another resolution by which Maran would be given a show-cause notice asking him to explain his conduct and decide after getting his reply on further action against him including regarding his primary membership.
The attack on Dinakaran was carried out by DMK workers owing allegiance to M K Azhagiri, elder son of Karunanidhi, after the daily carried a survey which claimed that 70 per cent of the people favoured the Chief Minister's younger son M K Stalin as his political heir while two per cent pitched for Azhagiri, and 22 per cent were shown supporting others.
