Tharoor, under fire over IPL, calls on PM

NEW DELHI: Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, under pressure to quit over the Kochi IPL row, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for about 50 minutes at his residence in New Delhi on Sunday.

The minister drove away after the meeting without talking to journalists massed outside the prime minister's residence. Manmohan Singh returned home a day earlier after a week-long visit to the US and Brazil.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi gave no details but underlined that Manmohan Singh had declared abroad that he would be acting on the Indian Premier League (IPL) controversy only after studying the facts.

The Opposition has demanded that Tharoor should either resign from the council of ministers or be sacked for allegedly trying to influence the selection of the IPL Kochi cricket franchise.

Tharoor has refuted the charge, but the involvement of one of his friends, Sunanda Pushkar, in the Kochi franchise has dented his denial.

Pushkar holds sweat equity in a company that is part of a consortium that won the Kochi franchise. She has admitted her friendship with the minister but denied she was his proxy.

The meeting with Manmohan Singh comes ahead of a Congress leadership meeting scheduled here later in the evening to decide the minister's fate.

The evening meeting will be attended by the prime minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and senior ministers.