Indian minister resigns from cabinet

Nitish Kumar: Differences with his party colleagues

The Indian Agriculture minister, Nitish Kumar, has resigned from the coalition government.

Mr Kumar told journalists that internal differences within the Samata Party - one of the constituent parties of the ruling alliance - were behind his decision.

We are hoping to persuade him to withdraw his resignation

Party president Jaya Jaitley

"I am not in politics to brook insult... my political career is transparent," the Press Trust of India quoted him as saying.

He handed in his resignation to the Defence Minister, George Fernandes - who is the party's parliamentary leader - and asked him to forward it to the prime minister.

"We are hoping to persuade him to withdraw his resignation," Samata Party president, Jaya Jaitley, told journalists in Delhi.

Rift

The resignation followed a rift in the party over Mr Kumar's proposal for a merger with another regional party - the Janata Dal United - in the eastern state of Bihar.

George Fernandes: Dismissed the resignation

If merged, the two parties would have more members in the Bihar legislative assembly than any other party.

But six members of the Samata Party strongly criticised the proposal in a press conference held in Delhi on Wednesday.

They threatened to leave the party and form an independent group if the proposal went through.

Split

Analysts say the Samata Party could split on this issue - elections to the party's Bihar leadership are due on Friday with a showdown expected between the two factions.

However, the party's leaders have described both the protests and Mr Kumar's resignation as internal matters which would be dealth with.

Ms Jaitley said the Samata Party executive would discuss the issue at a meeting next week in the southern city of Mysore.

The Samata Party is one of more than 20 parties that make up India's coalition government led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.