Andhra Pradesh Governor ND Tiwari on Friday denied media reports alleging his involvement in a sex scandal and termed them "malicious" even as women's groups held demonstrations outside his official residence here demanding his resignation.
The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader N Chandrababu Naidu has also sought the 86-year-old Tiwari's resignation for "unbecoming conduct".
Ravi Shankar, Tiwari's lawyer told CNN-IBN news channel that the allegations were "a tissue of lies" and they had slapped a legal notice on the media house that telecast clips purportedly showing the governor in compromising position along with three young women in his bedroom. Hours after the TV channel aired footage of the alleged sex scandal, a group of 50 odd women descended on the Raj Bhawan demanding action against the governor.
Police quickly hustled away the protesting women. A dozen activists of the All India Democratic Women's Organisation and Progressive Women's Organisation were arrested.
A statement issued from Raj Bhavan Friday evening said the governor was disturbed at the attempts to malign him.
The statement signed by Aryandra Sharma, officer on special duty to the governor, said: "All other media/news channels have been informed of the facts with a request not to take cognizance of fabricated, false and malicious news story attempting to tarnish the image of the Hon'ble Governor."
"There is absolutely no truth in the alleged news story which is nothing but sensation mongering and in poor taste. It is nothing but a tissue of lies," it added.
"The Governor Shri Narayan Datt Tiwariji is 86 years old and in the evening of his life. The office of the Governor is constantly under public scrutiny and entirely above board."
"It is sad and unfortunate that constitutional functionaries are dragged into needless controversy with utter disregard to propriety as well as deference to be shown to the age which is part of our culture and tradition," it said.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court, acting on a public suit, issued an injunction against showing the pictures, a couple of hours after the ABN channel aired the clips.
The channel quoted Radhika, a woman from Uttarakhand, as saying that she sent the young women to the Raj Bhavan on Tiwari's request through his aide.
The woman said she was exposing the governor as he failed to provide her an iron ore mining licence in Andhra Pradesh.
Narayan Dutt Tiwari was born in 1925, in village Baluti, Nainital district. His father Poornanand Tiwari was an official in the forest department, and who later resigned and joined the Non-cooperation movement. Tiwari received his education at various schools including, M.B. School, Haldwani, E.M. High School, Bareilly and C.R.S.T. High School, Nainital.
His initiation into politics came early, when during the Indian Independence movement, he was arrested on December 14, 1942 for writing Anti-British leaflets opposing imperialist policies, and sent to Nainital jail , where his father was already lodged.
Upon his release 15 months in 1944, he joined Allahabad University, where he topped the University in M.A. (Political Science), he continued his education doing LLB from the same university, and elected as the President of the Students’ Union of the Allahabad University in 1947. Meanwhile he was remained Secretary, All India Students Congress, 1945-49. In the first election in Uttar Pradesh after the independence for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly held in 1952, he was elected from Nanital constituency and became an MLA for the first time on Praja Samajwadi Party ticket. In 1957, he was elected from the Nainital legislative constituency, and became the leader of Opposition in the Assembly. He was married to Dr. Sushila Sanwal in the year 1954.
In 1963, he joined the Indian National Congress, and was elected M.L.A. from the Kashipur,_Uttarakhand constituency in 1965, in the same year he was appointed a minister in the Government of Uttar Pradesh. After that he also remained Minister for Finance and Parliamentary Affairs in the Chaudhary Charan Singh Government (1979-1980). In 1968, he established Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre (JNNYC) is a voluntary Organisation. He remained the first President of Indian Youth Congress from 1969 to 1971.
N.D. Tiwari was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh three times: from January 1976 to April 1977, from August 1984 to September 1985 and from June 1988 to December 1988. He did a lot of work in developing the road and bridge network of U.P. - the network expanded significantly.
He was elected to 7th Lok Sabha in 1980, and served as a union minister in several portfolios in the 1980s: starting with Planning, and also remained Dpt. Chairman, Planning Commission. Thereafter he became a member of Rajya Sabha 1985-1988, during this period he also remained the Minister of Industries in September 1985 and in addition to that portfolio, became minister of Petroleum in 1986. He then served as India's External Affairs Minister from October 1986 until July 1987, at which point he became Minister of Finance and Commerce, serving in that position until June 1988, when he became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the third time.
He was a contender to be Prime Minister of India in the early 1990s but was beaten by the late Narasimha Rao . One of the key reasons was that he lost the Lok Sabha elections by a mere 800 votes. In 1994, he resigned from Congress and formed his own All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) along with senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh in 1995, but joined back when Sonia Gandhi came at the helm of affairs of the party two years later, and after a devastating defeat of the party under Narasimha Rao during the general elections in 1996. Tiwari was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996, and again to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.
He later served as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh, from 2002 through 2007. He offered to resign on 5 March 2006, citing his age. He left office in March 2007 following setbacks for his party in the state elections.
Tiwari was appointed governor of Andhra Pradesh on 19 August 2007 and was sworn in on 22 August.[9] Mr.N D Tiwari quit the office by the allegation by a local news channel (A B N Andhra jyothi) that ,he involved in the sex scandal.he quit the office on 26th december 2009.
