A day after Dravida Munnetra Kazhaghan snapped ties with the National Democratic Alliance, its representatives in the Union Council of Ministers - T R Baalu and A Raja – on Sunday handed over their resignations to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Also Read DMK pulls out of NDA

The party will henceforth extend issue-based support to the NDA from outside, like the Telugu Desam Party.

Baalu (Environment) and Raja (MoS Health), who drove to the prime minister's residence, told him that the party's decision was prompted by differences with the Bharatiya Janata Party's Tamil Nadu unit.

Baalu told mediapersons that when he asked Vajpayee whether there was any message to be conveyed to DMK president M Karunanidhi, the prime minister, apparently in a lighter vein, said, "I am not going to accept the resignations."