Omar Abdullah was still Minister of State for External Affairs as of Tuesday night since he hadn’t received a reply to his resignation offer from the Prime Minister’s Office.Omar, who offered to quit after his party abstained from voting on the censure motion in the Lok Sabha, told The Indian Express that since he hadn’t heard from Vajpayee until late evening, he would continue as MoS tomorrow.‘‘I have no particular work at office, and I may not go there. But I have to host a minister from the Slovak Republic,’’ said Omar. Interestingly, he has only verbally communicated his decision to quit, and hasn’t handed in a formal resignation letter to the Prime Minister. Vajpayee also told reporters at a Maharashtra Day function here that ‘‘I have not yet accepted the resignation of Omar Abdullah, adds PTI.Sources said that Omar has got a nod from the PMO to continue despite the mounting pressure from BJP hardliners to make him resign. A section of BJP leaders, reportedly led by Venkiah Naidu and Law Minister Arun Jaitley, is pressuring Vajpayee to ‘punish’ Omar for not supporting the government.However, George Fernandes, who is considered close to Omar’s father Farooq Abdullah, is said to have lobbied for retaining Omar. Among other Omar’s supporters are L.K. Advani and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh.Sources close to Omar say that he has been careful not to antagonise the BJP leadership beyond a point so that ‘‘the chances of his father becoming vice-president remain alive.’’
