Jaipur:
Rajasthan Minister Ameen Khan, who has created a controversy by his remarks that Pratibha Patil was "rewarded" with the post of President for her loyalty to the Gandhi family, has been asked to resign.
Sources said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot asked Khan, Minister of State for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, to put in his papers in the wake of the personal remarks made by him against the President, which he has since denied.
They said Gehlot, who is in Delhi, discussed the issue with Congress President Sonia Gandhi's Political Secretary Ahmed Patel and Union Minister Mukul Wasnik in charge of party affairs in Rajasthan.
The Chief Minister is also understood to have talked to the President and expressed regrets over the remarks made by Khan.
Addressing Congress workers in Pali district yesterday, Khan had reportedly said that Patil did not ask for any position but was made the President due to her loyalty to the Gandhi family and cited instances of her association with Indira Gandhi.