Andhra governor resigns after telecast of sex escapade footage

Hyderabad : Narayan Dutt Tiwari, who found himself in the eye of a storm after allegations about sexual escapades, has resigned as the governor of Andhra Pradesh.

Eighty-four-year-old Tiwari was appointed as the state governor by UPA government in August 2007.

Raj Bhavan sources said that Tiwari in his resignation letter sent to the President Pratibha Patil requested to be relieved of his responsibilities on "health grounds". However an official statement was awaited from Raj Bhavan.

A highly embarrassed 84-year-old Tiwari exited Raj Bhavan a day after a local Telugu television channel telecast a news report and showed footage of bedroom scenes of "an old man with three girls" alleging that it featured Tiwari.

According to the sources Tiwari decided to quit after a clear message from the centre that if he does not take an honourable way out of quitting on his own, he will be sacked. The expose of alleged sexual racket had left the ruling Congress party highly embarrassed.

Demanding action

State's main opposition Telugu Desam and the BJP had demanded his immediate removal as the women's organisation and other groups had held demonstrations in front of Raj Bhavan and other places demanding action against the governor for denigrating a constitutional position.

Though on record the ruling party leaders had maintained that fact should be independently established as the matter was sub-judice in High Court, privately central government had made it clear to him that he will have to go.

Informed sources said that the UPA core committee was to meet in New Delhi to decide Tiwari's fate in the light of the allegations.

Though on a petition moved by Raj Bhavan counsel on Saturday — a division bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court had issued a restraining order to all newspapers and television channels against carrying the news story — ABN channel maintained that it had solid evidence to back up its reports.

V. Radhakrishna, managing director of ABN, said that his channel would welcome it if Tiwari filed a defamation suit.

ABN Telugu news channel, which exposed the sex scandal allegedly involving Tiwari, has termed his resignation as a "victory of the moral values", IANS reported. "It is the victory of moral values. It shows how the moral values are still dear to the people," Radhakrishna said.

Radhakrishna claimed that it was the first instance of its kind in India when a state governor had to resign amid a sex scandal.

The channel on Friday showed pictures of an elderly man purported to be Tiwari with three young women in bed in the Raj Bhavan.

The channel, launched recently, quoted Radhika, a woman from Uttarakhand, as saying that she sent the young women to the Raj Bhavan on Tiwari's request through his aide.

She claimed that she was "exposing" the governor as he failed to keep his word to provide her an iron ore mining licence in Andhra Pradesh.

Illustrious career

It was a sorry end to an illustrious political career. Narayan Dutt Tiwari, who resigned as Andhra Pradesh governor on Saturday after being caught on videotape in an alleged sex romp with three women in the Raj Bhavan, has been one of the longest-serving Congress leaders of the country.

A topper in law from Allahabad University, Tiwari has held several key positions in his political career spanning over five decades. He has been chief minister and held important portfolios as union minister, including that of finance and defence.

He has also been deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.

After Rajiv Gandhi's asassination in 1991, Tiwari was one of the leading contenders for the prime minister's post, till he was upstaged by P. V. Narasimha Rao.

He was the last Congress chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1989 and occupied the post thrice earlier.

He was the first elected chief minister of Uttarakhand in 2002 before being sent to Andhra Pradesh as a governor in 2007 after the party lost the Uttarakhand assembly elections.

Born on October 18, 1925, Tiwari participated in the freedom struggle and was jailed at the age of 17.

Tiwari started his political journey as a socialist in 1952 and joined the Congress in 1963.