India, Feb. 13 -- PC Chacko, state chief of the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Kerala, tendered his resignation from the post on Wednesday, sources said.

Chacko's resignation comes on the heels of internal strife within the NCP faction in Kerala particularly over the ministership of party leader AK Saseendran, a source said. Saseendran is currently the forest minister in the CPM-led LDF cabinet.

The NCP (SP) has two MLAs in the state Assembly - Saseendran and Thomas K Thomas. At the end of two-and-a-half years of the LDF government, Chacko wanted Saseendran to be replaced by Thomas as minister. Saseendran has publicly said that he is open to pave the way for Thomas if chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan ...