HRD minister Kapil Sibal was today given the additional charge of the telecom ministry by prime minister Manmohan Singh in a development that takes the portfolio away from DMK at least for the time being.

Official sources said Sibal will hold the charge of the Ministry held by A Raja, who yesterday resigned facing allegations of scam in 2G spectrum allocation.

The arrangement is seen to be temporary in view of the ongoing Parliament session when issues related to the ministry are to be handled at the senior level, particularly at a time when the ministry is facing allegations of corruption of huge magnitude.

By tradition, a reshuffle of the council of ministers is not undertaken during a Parliament session.

Sibal, a renowned lawyer-turned-politician, was a week earlier given the additional charge of ministries of science and technology and earth sciences, which fell vacant after incumbent Prithviraj Chavan was made chief minister of Maharashtra.

In another decision, V Narayansamy, minister of state for parliamentary affairs, was given additional charge of department of personnel and training (DoPT), which also fell vacant after Chavan's departure.

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Raja quits to save govt spectrum shame

Yielding to relentless opposition pressure, Telecom Minister A Raja resigned on Sunday in the wake of the 2G Spectrum allocation scam.

"In order to avoid embarrassment to the government and maintain peace and harmony in Parliament, my leader (DMK chief M Karunanidhi) has advised me to resign," Raja told PTI.

Raja, 47, met Karunanidhi in Chennai twice in the last 24 hours, before flying back to Delhi and went straight to the Prime Minister's 7, Race Course Road residence to hand over his resignation letter.

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said with the resignation of Raja it is imperative that the probe into the scam is conducted thoroughly so that "those guilty of causing such a huge loss to the exchequer are brought to book".

The opposition parties gave enough indications that they will continue to raise the issue vociferously in Parliament, saying the matter did not end and the Prime Minister will have to do a lot of answering.

Congress, meanwhile, expressed confidence that Raja's resignation will have no bearing on its alliance with DMK.

Party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said that the resignation showed that UPA was maintaining highest standards of accountability and integrity.

She recalled that for the last one week, the opposition had obstructed Parliament on the issue and hoped that they would now allow Parliament to function properly.

Replying to questions, Natarajan said that her party's alliance with DMK is "very strong" and there will be "absolutely no change" in it. "There can be no bearing on Raja's resignation on the alliance," she said.

Raja is the second minister to exit the one-and-a-half year-old UPA-II under a cloud after Shashi Tharoor was forced to resign as Minister of State for External Affairs in the wake of IPL controversy.

Opposition parties, which have been gunning for Raja, welcomed his resignation saying it was a victory for public opinion but demanded an impartial inquiry into the whole scam and registration of a criminal case to bring the truth out.

The Congress party took a moral high ground saying Raja has resigned in the best Parliamentary traditions and hoped that both Houses of Parliament would be allowed to function normally from tomorrow.

Raja's continuance in the Government had become untenable after the report of the CAG in which the government auditor CAG is believed to have indicted the Telecom ministry for not distributing 2G Spectrum in a transparent manner resulting in a revenue loss of over Rs.1.76 lakh crore.

The Supreme Court's caustic comments in its last hearing on October 29 on Raja's continuance in office had only added to his problems.

After meeting the Prime Minister, Raja said he had not done anything wrong. "We wanted to send a message to the people that as I said both inside Parliament and outside I did a revolution in the telecom sector. When I took over there was only 300 million connections in the country. Due to my efforts and endeavour today's teledensity in the country is 729 million".

"We did whatever we can for the people and my conscience is very clear and I put in my papers based on the advise from my leader," he said.

The dramatic development came on a day of hectic activities in Delhi and Chennai.

The top Congress leadership met in Delhi and discussed the issue anticipating uproar in Parliament by the opposition which has been demanding his removal.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party president Sonia Gandhi and senior leaders Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmad Patel, political secretary to the Congress chief, attended the meeting amid growing view in the party that Raja's continuance in office has become untenable and that he must go.

There were unconfirmed reports that senior leader Pranab Mukherjee had spoken to Karunanidhi conveying to him that Raja's resignation would be a better option to avoid any further deadlock in Parliament.

The resignation came ahead of tomorrow's Supreme Court hearing of two petitions alleging involvement of Raja in the spectrum scam.

Also, the opposition parties had made it clear that they would not allow Parliament to function if Raja does not step down.

Ironically, Raja had told reporters at the Chennai airport before leaving for Delhi that, "There is no question of my resigning and there is no need for it.

No JPC, no statement from PM on 2G issue: govt

Ruling out a statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament on the resignation of Telecom Minister A Raja, Government today said BJP's demand for a JPC probe into 2G spectrum issue was "unacceptable" and slammed the opposition party for not allowing the Houses to function.

"Why should the Prime Minister make a statement in Parliament. It is the privilege of the minister to make a statement on the floor of the House. If Raja wants to make a statement, he can do so," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.

Going on the offensive against the BJP, he wondered whether then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made a statement in Parliament after George Fernandes had resigned as Defence Minister in the wake of the Tehelka expose.

Mukherjee, who is the Leader of the Lok Sabha, said the "JPC demand is absolutely unacceptable.