My letter to the Congress President Shri. Rahul Gandhi Ji, submitted on 10 June 2019. https://t.co/WS3yYwmnPl — Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) 1563085827000

Will be sending my resignation to the Chief Minister, Punjab. — Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) 1563087720000

CHANDIGARH: Putting an end to the month-long suspense over his absence from office following his public spat with chief minister Amarinder Singh , Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday made public his decision to quit the cabinet by tweeting the resignation letter he had submitted to Rahul Gandhi on June 10.Sidhu, sore over Amarinder’s decision to divest him of the plum local bodies portfolio, had been awaiting intervention by the central Congress leadership. He chose to disclose his resignation after more than a month in a bid to pre-empt action by the CM for not assuming charge as power and renewable resources minister, party sources said.But sources in the chief minister’s office said no resignation letter had been received from Sidhu till Sunday evening. Congress leaders were surprised that the cricketer-turned-politician had not forwarded his resignation letter to the party’s state unit in over a month.The one-line resignation reads, “Respected Sir, I hereby resign as minister from the Punjab cabinet.”In a separate tweet, Sidhu said, “Will be sending my resignation to the Chief Minister, Punjab.”Barring those tweets, Sidhu remained incommunicado. Sources close to him said he was in Amritsar . He was reportedly on a pilgrimage over the past few days.Before that, he had tweeted a picture of his meeting with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi on June 10, making only a passing reference to “a letter”. It was believed at the time that he had shared details of how the local bodies department had performed under him.Since Sidhu waited to make his resignation public, it is being interpreted as a sign that he had been hoping for a conciliatory move by the chief minister.Rahul had asked party veteran Ahmed Patel to speak to both sides. However, when Amarinder met Patel for a ‘courtesy call’, he reportedly refused to discuss Sidhu.A cabinet minister said that though Amarinder must have known about Sidhu’s decision to quit, this was not known to others in the cabinet. “At least, I was unaware,” he said.Amarinder had indicated a hardening of his stance on Sidhu by convening a meeting last week to review the power situation in the state. There was also a buzz that he might write to the governor to withdraw Sidhu’s portfolio.When Sidhu finally announced his resignation on Sunday, potshots at the Congress government flew thick and fast. AAP leader Harpal Singh Cheema and Punjabi Ekta Party leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira urged Sidhu to join the third front by quitting Congress.Sidhu had been left out of the consultative groups formed by the chief minister on June 8, two days after the cabinet reshuffle, to accelerate implementation of the government's flagship programmes.The rift came out in the open last month when the CM blamed Sidhu for his “inept handling” of the local bodies department, saying it had resulted in the party’s “poor” poll performance in the urban areas of Punjab.