Nationalist Congress party has forwarded the resignation of Minister
of State for Urban Development Sunil Tatkare to the Chief Minister
for approval today.

Talking to reporters here today, NCP spokesperson Vasant Chavan
informed that the resignation letter was held back awaiting an
assurance from the peasants' and workers party (PWP) to continue
their support to the Democratic Front (DF) Government in the state.

The leaders of NCP and PWP held a late night meeting yesterday in
which the issue of Tatkare's resignation and PWP support to the state
government were discussed, he said. ''Since the PWP gave an assurance
to continue support, we have forwarded the resignation,'' Mr Chavan
added.

The five-member PWP had threatened to withdraw support to the DF
Government holding Mr Tatkare responsible for the defeat of Ms
Supriya Patil, their presidential candidate for prestigious Raigad
zilla parishad elections, held on march 21. Mr Tatkare was incharge
of the Raigad ZP presidential polls for NCP.

Sena candidate Apeksha Karekar trounced the PWP candidate by 13 votes
to become the Raigad ZP president.

Meanwhile, the fate of Mr Tatkare's resignation, which has to be sent
to the State Governor, is yet to be known since Chief Minister
Vilasrao Deshmukh is currently in Nagpur.

Congress-led eight party df coalition government has already suffered
a setback earlier this week with the communist party of India-marxist
(CPM) withdrawing its support to the government.

Chalomumbai.com