Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh resigned on Friday night from the government.

Senior Rashtriya Lok Dal MLA from Uttar Pradesh Pratap Choudhary told reporters at the minister's residence that Singh had resigned to protest against 'problems of farmers not being addressed to by the Vajpayee government.'

Singh was also unhappy over the non-fulfilment of his demand for carving out a separate Harit Pradesh from Uttar Pradesh, Choudhary said.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Finance Gingee Ramachandran too resigned on Friday night in the wake of the arrest of his personal assistant for allegedly accepting bribe for fixing an official's transfer.

Question marks had arisen over the continuance of Ajit Singh in the Cabinet, after he called for a meeting of Rashtriya Lok Dal legislators in New Delhi on Saturday (May 24) to discuss whether the RLD should continue to be a part of the National Democratic Alliance coalition.

"This will be a crucial meeting in which all the issues concerning alliance and future strategy of the party would be discussed," general secretary of the party Anil Dubey had said earlier in the day.