A day after resigning from the Union Cabinet, Murli Manohar Joshi on Saturday said he will wait for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's return from the US before deciding his future course of action.

"Let the prime minister return," was all that he would say when reporters asked him whether he would withdraw his resignation if Vajpayee requested him to do so.

Joshi, who holds the human resource development portfolio in the Vajpayee government, submitted his resignation after a special court in Rae Bareilly said charges will be framed against him and six others in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

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Joshi said the prime minister spoke to him on Friday and Saturday but declined to divulge any details of the conversation. "It is between us," he said.

He said the Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani too spoke to him two-three times during the past 24 hours.

On reports suggesting that he may be asked to take up party work, Joshi said: "It is you people who write about it."

Several leaders, including Union ministers B C Khanduri and Sangh Priya Gautam, senior party collegue Shanta Kumar,
former minister Maneka Gandhi and Trinamool Congress leader Nitish Sengupta met Joshi on Saturday.

Joshi did not attend office.

"Secretaries are there who will carry on with the work. And there are ministers of state," he said.