Congress MP from Mandya Ambareesh is said to have approached party President Sonia Gandhi to impress upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to accept his long-pending resignation as minister of state for information and broadcasting.

The film star has also met Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and urged him to consider his resignation as a member from the Mandya constituency.

There has, however, been no communiqué either from the government or the Speaker’s office on the follow-up action in this regard.

Ambareesh, who was here on August 10 to vote for the UPA nominee for Vice-President Mohammed Hameed Ansari, used the visit to call on Ms Gandhi and the Speaker.

Incidentally, he did not meet Dr Singh.

The popular leader had cast his vote during the President’s poll too but skipped a party meeting addressed by Dr Singh in Bangalore on August 3.

Cauvery dispute
Ambareesh resigned from the Lok Sabha membership and ministership on February 14 in protest against the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal order on the inter-state dispute. Since then did not attend Parliament session.
However, while the prime minister did not accept the resignation, the Lok Sabha Speaker’s office sources said it was not in proper form.

Surprisingly, even Ambareesh, perhaps under instructions from the party bosses, did not make attempts to press the resignation.

With him continuing as minister, his office in Shastri Bhavan where the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is housed, still carries his new nameplate. Incidentally, although refurbished, the three-time MP did not step into the office even once.

Ambareesh has recently announced that he would not contest the Lok Sabha seat again which indicates he may contest Assembly and confine himself to Karnataka politics.