Bengaluru : Former minister M C Nanaiah has resigned as chairman of the Committee to Suggest Changes to Laws on Preventing Sexual Abuses of Women and Children.

The resignation was sent by fax to Home Minister K J George on Thursday morning.

In a letter addressed to George, Nanaiah said he was resigning with immediate effect from his position as the committee chairman due to “compelling personal reasons”. Nanaiah, though technically is with the JD(S), has not been attending the party meetings. He was cut up with the party for not renominating him to the Legislative Council.

After the Congress came to power, Nanaiah had given an impression that he had good equations with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. As chairman of the committee, he was enjoying the status of a Cabinet rank minister. The committee had held meetings, but attendance by members used to be thin.

Sources said he could not give convincing replies in public to JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy’s jibes. A couple of days ago, Nanaiah gave a clean chit to Siddaramaiah in the Arkavathi denotification case. This did not go down well with Kumaraswamy who said that with a legal expert like Nanaiah himself giving a clean chit, there was no need for the Kempanna Commission. Nanaiah remained incommunicado on Thursday.