Culture Minister Ambika Soni may not face the axe on the affidavit controversy, with a senior All India Congress Committee leader on Friday saying that the party leadership had never considered the need for her to resign.

"It never came to resignation. The prime minister or Sonia Gandhi [Images] never hinted at the need for resignation," the leader said on condition of anonymity.

The statement comes a day after Soni met the prime minister to explain the role of the Culture Ministry in the issue regarding Lord Ram.

"It was all just speculation," the leader said.

Soni had earlier met the Congress president and submitted documents pertaining to the issue to her.

After her meeting with the prime minister, Soni had said she was 'very satisfied' with the interaction.

Soni had come under attack from her own party colleagues in the matter, with Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and senior leader R K Dhawan seeking her resignation over the fiasco.

Soni, on her part, had said she would not take even half-a-minute to resign if asked to do so by either the prime minister or the Congress chief.

She has stated that her ministry had made three amendments in the affidavit in question, of which one was not carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India.