The Congress said there is no question of Shashi Tharoor’s resignation, after key ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) said he must dissociate from his ministerial duties till the probe into his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death is complete.
“He is a responsible minister of the government. Nobody is accusing him of anything, why should he resign?” said Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.
Earlier, NCP spokesperson DP Tripathi had said, “We are all with Shashi Tharoor at this hour of grief but I must say the charges are very serious and the minister should dissociate from his ministerial responsibility.”
Mr Tharoor is the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development. On Tuesday, the Congress included him in the rejigged list of spokespersons for the party as part of an image overhaul three months ahead of the national election.
Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor was found dead in a luxury hotel in Delhi on Friday, days after she alleged that her husband was having an affair with a Pakistani journalist, whom she targeted in a series of tweets. A day before her death, the Tharoors had issued a statement that said they were happily married.
A magistrate in Delhi has asked the police to investigate whether Sunanda Tharoor’s death was accidental, a suicide, or murder, based on the autopsy that said she had died of poisoning.
