Hyderabad, December 26
Andhra Pradesh Governor ND Tiwari today resigned in the wake of his alleged involvement in a “sex scandal”. The resignation, citing health reasons, came a day after a local Telugu news channel aired explicit footage purportedly showing the octogenarian leader in a compromising position with three young women.

The alleged sting operation set off shock waves across the country, prompting the opposition BJP, TDP and Left parties to demand his dismissal.

“The Governor has submitted his resignation to President Pratibha Patil on health grounds,” a statement from the Raj Bhavan said here.

The resignation came a few hours after a high-level meeting in Delhi chaired by the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The meeting, attended by senior central ministers Pranab Mukherjee and AK Antony, is believed to have taken serious note of the development.

The pictures, telecast by “ABN Andhra Jyothy” channel, showed an old man lying naked in bed with three women bent over him. The channel claimed that the clips were those of Tiwari.

The channel quoted a woman, identified as Radhika from Uttaranchal, as saying that she had sent young women to Raj Bhavan on Tiwari's request, through his aide.

The woman claimed that she was exposing the Governor’s indiscretions as he had failed to get her an iron ore mining license in Andhra Pradesh as promised by him.

Eighty-six year old Tiwari, former chief minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, rubbished the charges, terming the alleged “sex tapes” as a “bunch of lies”.

The Raj Bhavan had approached the High Court and got a restraint order. Following this, the channel stopped the telecast of the footage.

The sting operation evoked a wide sense of outrage with activists of several women’s organisations staging demonstrations before the Raj Bhavan, demanding his resignation.

A statement from Raj Bhavan had yesterday described the story as fabricated, false and malicious attempting to tarnish the image of the Governor.

It also made it clear that Tiwari would continue to discharge his constitutional duties without fear and favour.

“We wish to state that there is absolutely no truth in the alleged story which is nothing but sensation-mongering and in poor taste,” a statement issued by Aryandra Sharma, OSD to Governor, had said.

The "sex scandal" broke out at a time when the state is already caught in a violent agitation over a separate state for Telangana.

There were reports that the Centre had been already looking for a replacement for the ageing Tiwari to effectively handle the emerging crisis in the wake of en masse resignations of the legislators from Telangana.