A senior vice-president of the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir, Sham Lal Sharma, on Monday sprung a surprise for the party leadership when he announced his resignation from the post while speaking in a function that was organised here to observe the 27th death anniversary of the former Prime Minister and Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi.
The PCC chief GA Mir was present in the function in the Congress headquarters of the state when Sharma announced his resignation without giving any reason and walked away.
Sharma was a minister in the National Conference-Congress coalition government that was headed by Omar Abdullah till 2015.
Mir confirmed to The Statesman that Sharma had announced his resignation but has so far sent nothing in writing. There were reports that Sharma was upset as he had been told that he might not be retained on the post of senior vice-president in the reconstituted PCC that is expected to be announced shortly. Thereafter, Sharma had been complaining that he was not getting support for his Jammu-centric programmes from the party leadership.
Sharma is considered close to the AICC leader and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Sharma posted his decision to resign on the social media and was not available on phone when contacted.