Kotkar submitted his resignation to Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde -- also leader of the party in the assembly -- who declared he would not accept the resignation. But the aggrieved MLA said he would ``under no circumstances'' withdraw his letter.

Launching a frontal attack on his party and the state government, Kotkar in his resignation letter said there was a general impression in his constituency that the state government would upgrade the tehsil to a district. He reminded the deputy chief minister that he had been pursuing the demand for the previous eight years as member of the state assembly.

But, the letter added, repeatedassurances by the alliance government came to nothing which left him just one option -- to accept the failure and resign.

The government had earlier indicated that the decision on formation of Hingoli district would be announced on September 17 - the 50th anniversary of Marathwada liberation.

Talking to The Indian Express, Munde said he could not afford to take decisions on the formation of new districts on the basis of ``emotive appeals''. Every new district had to be allocated at least Rs 100 crore, he pointed out. Since several such demands were pending before the state government, it was decided to refer all of them to a special committee set up under the chairmanship of the Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, Munde added.