Mumbai, Dec 1 (IANS) Chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar Monday said he requested Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to accept his deputy R.R. Patil’s resignation.Patil, the deputy chief minister, in the morning submitted his resignation to Deshmukh to own up moral responsibility for the Mumbai terror siege that killed at least 183 people.

“Today he (Patil) communicated his resignation to the chief minister. I requested (Deshmukh) to accept the resignation,” Pawar, who is also a union minister, told reporters here.

Patil is a senior leader of Pawar’s NCP - a coalition ally of the Congress led government in Maharashtra.

Pawar said Patil had offered to step down soon after the attack Wednesday but held back after his request.

“After such a serious problem in Mumbai everybody was shocked… I requested him to let the (anti-terror) operation continue,” he said.

Patil, who was also the state home minister, had drawn flak for his remark that “small incidents like this do happen in big cities”, a reference to the Mumbai terror attack that began Wednesday and went on till Saturday.

He was speaking to reporters Saturday, when the operation to flush out terrorists was still on at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel.