Punjab minister Razia Sultana quits 'in solidarity with' Sidhu

Punjab minister Razia Sultana has announced she is resigning from the cabinet "in solidarity” with Navjot Singh Sidhu, who quit as state Congress chief on Tuesday.

“I, Razia Sultana, hereby resign as cabinet minister, Punjab, in solidarity with Navjot Singh Sidhu, PPCC president, and millions of Congress workers across the state," she said in her resignation letter sent to chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

Like Sidhu, she too politely offered to continue to work for the party. The resignations came hours after CM Channi allocated portfolios to his new cabinet.


Sultana was allotted departments of water supply and sanitation, social security, women and child development and printing and stationery.

Earlier, she held the charge of the transport department in the Amarinder Singh-led government.


"My heartfelt thanks to Sonia Gandhiji, hon'ble Congress president, and Rahul Gandhiji for their countless blessings on me and my family in our hours of need,” her letter said.

Sultana is considered close to Sidhu and her husband Mohd Mustafa, a former IPS officer, is a principal strategic adviser to the Congress leader. Both Razia and Mustafa went to Patiala to meet Sidhu at his residence.

Sidhu earlier in the day resigned as the chief of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, plunging the party into a fresh crisis just months ahead of the assembly elections in the state.