Union Minister for Rural Development Shanta Kumar on Sunday evening submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who forwarded it to President A P J Abdul Kalam for acceptance.

"He has resigned, though officially the party has not been intimated," Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told rediff.com

Kumar had blamed the non-performance of the Prem Kumar Dhumal government for the defeat of the BJP in the Himachal Pradesh election.

"We have to accept the verdict. I congratulate the Congress," he had said on March 1, the day the results were declared in the state.

Dhumal in turn had alleged that Kumar's wife had campaigned against party candidates in several constituencies.

Asked if Kumar had been asked to resign for openly criticising the Dhumal government, Naqvi said that could be the only reason.

At a party convention in Indore on Friday, BJP president Venkaiah Naidu had said that some people had got away with indiscipline.