Chandigarh: Razia Sultana resigned as the Punjab Cabinet minister on Tuesday, just hours after Navjot Singh Sidhu quit as the state Congress chief.
In her resignation letter to Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Sultana said she is resigning "in solidarity with Navjot Singh Sidhu".
Sultana is considered close to Sidhu. Her husband Muhammad Mustafa, who is a former IPS officer, is a principal strategic adviser to Sidhu.
Earlier in the day, Sultana was given the charge of the water supply and sanitation, social security, women and child development, printing and stationery departments.
She used to hold the transport department in the Amarinder Singh-led government.
Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday resigned as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief, plunging the party into a fresh crisis just months ahead of the assembly elections in the state.
Sidhu, 57, who announced his resignation shortly after the allocation of portfolios to the members of the new state Cabinet, said he remains with the party.
He was appointed the party's state unit president on July 18 amid a bitter power tussle with Amarinder Singh, who stepped down as the CM 10 days back while accusing the party high command of humiliating him.
