Gandhi steps down from parliament

Mrs Gandhi says she will stand for parliament again

India's governing Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi says she is resigning from parliament after allegations she was profiting from another public post.

Mrs Gandhi, who led Congress to a shock election win in 2004, is also quitting her seat on the National Advisory Council, the source of the controversy.

"It is the right thing to do," she told surprised reporters, adding she would run for parliament again in the future.

Under Indian law, MPs may not gain financially from other public posts.

Some people are trying to create an impression... that the government and parliament are being used for my personal gains Congress leader Sonia Gandhi Gandhi's 'dysfunctional' party Was she right to quit?

Mrs Gandhi's resignation is being seen by many as a deft political move which has wrong-footed her opponents.

But the BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi says her attempt to take the moral high ground is aimed at averting a major crisis for her party and the government.

He says her decision to quit parliament is a major embarrassment for the Congress party after reports it was instrumental in forcing the resignation of an opposition member of the upper house over the same "office of profit" issue.

Ordinance

Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) disagree over whether an MP's membership of the National Advisory Council contravenes Indian law on public office holders.

She became a victim of her own conspiracy... this grand-standing will not help BJP leader Arun Jaitley

Mrs Gandhi has headed the government-funded council, which was set up to advise the current coalition government on policy matters and whose members are not paid salaries.

"Since the last two days, some people are trying to create an impression in the country that the government and parliament are being used for my personal gains - therefore I have decided to resign from both these posts," Mrs Gandhi told reporters at her residence in the capital.

Her announcement came shortly after the government ended parliament's session early on Wednesday ahead of a move to change the law on MPs holding other salaried public posts.

Congress's left-wing allies say they will not support the proposed ordinance.

Mrs Gandhi's supporters protest outside her Delhi residence

The BJP also opposes the proposed new law. One of its leaders, Arun Jaitley, welcomed the Mrs Gandhi's resignation.

"Her party and her government were caught red-handed trying to subvert the constitution and parliament," he told reporters.

"She became a victim of her own conspiracy... this grand-standing will not help."

The "office of profit" issue came to prominence earlier in March after opposition Samajwadi Party MP and veteran actress Jaya Bachchan was disqualified from the upper house for holding a salaried position with a state film board.

'Inner voice'

Italian-born Mrs Gandhi, the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, distanced herself and her family from politics following her husband's assassination in 1991.

She ended her isolation in 1998 when she officially took charge of the party.

A year later she won the parliamentary seat in Rae Bareilly, which had been held by her mother-in-law and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

After the surprise Congress win in the 2004 general elections, hardliners in the defeated BJP made an issue of Mrs Gandhi's nationality.

She shocked the nation and the world by refusing to become prime minister, saying she had listened to her "inner voice".

Manmohan Singh then took the job, becoming India's first Sikh prime minister.