Telecom minister A Raja, who had come under the scanner for his role in the 2G spectrum allocation, has decided to step down and will submit his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“In order to avoid embarrassment to the Government and maintain peace and harmony in Parliament, my leader (DMK chief M Karunanidhi) has advised me to resign,”

Earlier, the Congress had asked the DMK to ask Raja to quit. However, according to DMK sources, the party had refused to take any hasty decisions.

Raja, 57, met Karunanidhi in Chennai twice in the last 24 hours, before flying back to Delhi and went straight to the Prime Minister’s 7, Race Course Road residence to hand over his resignation letter.

While the Congress had been eyeing a speedy resolution of the issue, DMK had contended that it would await tabling of the CAG report and the outcome of the Supreme Court hearing on Monday on the issue.

Initially Raja ruled out his resignation, the second time in three days, after meeting DMK chief M Karunanidhi has added to Congress discomfort, an apparent signal to the Centre that the southern ally will take its own time to come to any decision.

A senior Congress leader who declined to be identified, candidly admitted that it would require all the convincing of the party including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to persuade the DMK chief to agree to Raja’s ouster from the Cabinet.

The top Congress leadership met in Delhi and discussed the issue anticipating uproar in Parliament by the opposition which has been demanding Raja’s removal.

Congress sources said that its ace trouble-shooter Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is actively involved in the exercise on the Raja issue and is in touch with the DMK leadership.

Karunanidhi’s reported statement that he would withdraw other DMK MPs from the Government if Raja was sacked has added to the Congress dilemma. DMK has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha.

AIADMK leader Jayalalitha’s offer to give unconditional support to the Centre if the Prime Minister dumps Raja is another issue that has drawn Karunanidhi’s ire.

For the record, Congress spokespersons have been maintaining that the Raja matter is sub-judice and that the concerned report of CAG is yet to be tabled in Parliament.

The Opposition had been demanding removal of Raja after the government auditor CAG is believed to have indicted the minister for not distributing 2G spectrum in a transparent manner, resulting in a revenue loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government.