Shivraj Patil resigns, Deshmukh may go next

New Delhi: Union Home Shivraj Patil, facing fierce criticism over spate of terror attacks in the country since 2007, accepted 'moral responsibility' and sent his resignation to Prime Minister of Manmohan Singh on Sunday.

Party sources have confirmed that his resignation has been accepted and added that Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh could be next to be asked to step down.

There have been several terror attacks in the past, but due to the nature of Mumbai attacks and the fact that it is an election season, someone needed to take responsibility, party sources said.

There is speculation that Finance Minister P Chidambaram and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee are the top contenders for Patil’s post.

PMO sources told CNN-IBN that the party is considering significant changes in the Home Ministry. "Some bureaucrats are expected to be reshuffled soon," they said. There is also pressure mounting on the National Security Advisor M K Narayanan to quit because of repeated intelligence failure.

Patil offered to quit after Congress Working Committee (CWC) members expressed their dissatisfaction with the Home Ministry in the wake of Mumbai terror strikes, at a meeting held late on Saturday.

Patil told the meeting that as the Home minister he "takes the responsibility and whatever the CWC decides, I am ready to do", party sources said.

Patil's remarks suggested that he was ready to step down came in the wake of criticism by several leaders including union ministers over the way the internal security situation was being handled at the Central level, the sources added.

Sources say that CWC members came down heavily on Patil and Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for their failure.

UPA chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are believed to have pulled up Patil for the monumental intelligence failure in Mumbai terror strike case.

It is said that Patil's ministry failed to take cognisance of a serious input from intelligence about the impending attack long before terrorists struck Mumbai on Wednesday night, November 26.

HEADS WILL ROLL

Besides Patil, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was also present at the meeting, came under attack on the terror strikes issue, CWC sources said.

The leaders who voiced criticism on the issue included union ministers P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal and H R Bhardwaj, they said.

The refrain of these leaders at the meeting was that strong action is needed in the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes and accountability has to be ensured at the higher as well as lower levels.

This prompted Pranab Mukherjee to remark that since it was collective responsibility of the Cabinet, he would also like to take responsibility as the External Affairs Minister.

Maharashtra Chief Minister, however, chose to ignore the criticism and instead apprised the meeting of the steps taken by his government in the wake of terror strikes, they said.

The Home Minister as also National Security Adviser M K Narayanan came under attack at the CWC meeting called hours after the security operations against the terrorists was indication enough that the leadership was planning some strong steps.

(With inputs from PTI)