Twitter : Jul 14, 2019, 03:57 PM
Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has resigned from the state Cabinet. Submitting his resignation letter to the former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Sidhu posted a copy of the same on Twitter. The letter is dated June 10, 2019.
Navjot Singh Sidhu also tweeted that he will be sending his resignation to the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
On June 6, in a portfolio reshuffle exercise, Singh divested Sidhu of the key portfolios of local government, tourism and cultural affairs and allotted him power and new and renewable energy sources ministry. Since then he had not assumed the new charge.
Sidhu was also snubbed when he was left out of the consultative groups which were formed by the chief minister on June 8, aimed to accelerate the pace of implementation of government's flagship programmes.
He has also been criticised by Punjab Chief Minister for damaging the Congress prospects with his ill-timed comments against him and the party leadership in the state.
Earlier also, the tension between Singh and Sidhu had come out in the public. Last year, Sidhu had said in Hyderabad, "(Congress chief) Rahul Gandhi is my captain...Rahul Gandhi is the captain of the captain (Singh) also."
Singh had earlier disapproved of Sidhu hugging the Pakistan Army chief during his visit to the neighbouring country.
Last month, he even met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi in New Delhi and "apprised him of the situation" and also handed over a letter to him.
Navjot Sidhu had earlier vowed to quit politics if Congress president Rahul Gandhi lost the elections from Amethi. The fact that Sidhu waited for over a month before making his resignation letter public indicated that he could have been waiting for reconciliation.