Trouble for India's main opposition party Congress mounted after veteran Member of Parliament (MP) Anand Sharma resigned from his post as the head of the "steering committee" of its Himachal Pradesh unit on Sunday, news outlet NDTV reported.
Sharma's decision to relinquish his party post in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh came days after Ghulam Nabi Azad, the former state chief of Jammu and Kashmir stepped down as the chairman of the campaign committee besides the political affairs panel in the union territory.
Per the NDTV report, Sharma sent a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi to convey his decision, wherein he stated that he felt sidelined by the party's Himachal Pradesh unit and that is why he was leaving his post as he could not compromise on his self-respect.
In his letter to Sonia Gandhi, Sharma mentioned that the party's Himachal unit was not consulting him on the upcoming elections and that is why there was no point in occupying such a post.
Sharma is among the most prominent Congress members from Himachal Pradesh and has been a Rajya Sabha (the upper house of India's parliament) MP from the state since 1984.
Polls in Himachal Pradesh are due later this year, when Congress will be looking to unseat PM Narendra Modi's party, the BJP, from power.
Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also making a big foray in Himachal Pradesh, with the Delhi state chief making multiple visits to the poll-bound northern region since last year.