Sulking minister Gurudas Kamat quits

Apparently unhappy over not being elevated to Cabinet, Minister of State Gurudas Kamat on Tuesday resigned from the government saying he wants to work for the party.

Fifty-seven-year-old Kamat, a five-time MP from Mumbai, who was elevated as Minister of State with Independent Charge on Tuesday morning, has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he wants to be relieved of his ministerial responsibility.

"This is to clarify that early this morning, I personally wrote to Hon'ble Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Hon'ble Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to relieve me from my ministerial responsibility, expressing a desire to work in the party as an active party worker," he said in a press release issued in the evening from Mumbai.

However, he was not said to be happy over the elevation and was keen on a Cabinet berth.

He immediately left for Mumbai and did not not attend the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan where the new ministers and those elevated to the Cabinet were sworn in.

In the press release, Kamat, however, said "there is no question of any disappointment over the portfolio which in itself is an important one with concerns relating to requirements of the large sections of the people of the country.

"The reasons are totally personal and not any defiance of the party leadership as is being made out in certain sections of the media."

Kamat said he has the highest respect and regard for Gandhi and the Prime Minister and would continue to be a committed Congress worker.

"I have thanked both of them for the opportunity given to serve in the Union ministry in the last two years," he said in the release in which he also congratulated all those who have been elevated or inducted into the ministry.

Congress sources said that should have utilised the opportunity given to him and showed his mettle in the new portfolio.