File photo of Nancy Powell
The U.S. ambassador to India has resigned just a week before India starts voting for its next government.
Nancy Powell's two-year tenure in India ends as the two countries are still trying to mend ties following the diplomatic spat over the
arrest of diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York.
In Washington, State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Harf denied Powell's decision had anything to do with tensions between the two countries. "It is in no way related to any tension, any recent situations," Ms Harf said.
Relations between the world's largest democracies plunged in December, when Ms Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was arrested in Manhattan and strip-searched. She was accused of lying on visa forms so she could bring her maid to the U.S., paying her a pittance while forcing her to work long hours. Ms Khobragade has denied any wrongdoing and she has since returned to India.
India took retaliatory measures against the U.S. embassy, including removing the ambassador's exemption from airport security searches.
Analysts said it was clear the position of Ms Powell, a career diplomat who became the ambassador to India in 2012, had become untenable as a result of the affair.
In a posting on the U.S. Embassy website Monday,
Ambassador Nancy Powell gave no reason for her decision but said she had planned it for some time.
Ms Powell met the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in February in Gujarat, ending a decade-long U.S. boycott of the leader over the 2002 riots that took place on his watch. Mr Modi is leading opinion polls as the front runner for the country's top job. The US revoked his visa in 2005 following allegations that he did not do enough to prevent the communal violence.
A Supreme Court inquiry has said there is no evidence of those charges. A local court has upheld that report.
Some reports claimed Ms Powell's meeting with Mr Modi was delayed by two months because of the row over Ms Khobragade.
In 2010, President Barack Obama declared that the U.S.-Indian relationship would be "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century." Analysts say New Delhi has been keen for the US to replace Ms Powell in a timely manner with "a heavy-hitter" to show it considered India a real strategic partner
"If India is to be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century, we should send out diplomats that send that signal and carry that influence and gravitas that are needed," said Persis Khambatta of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.