Sanjay Joshi has requested BJP President Nitin Gadkari to relieve him from the party and his request has been accepted, say BJP sources. During the party conclave in Mumbai last month, Joshi was forced to resign from the Bharatiya Janata Party's National Executive.

It was only then that Gujarat CM Narendra Modi then decided to attend the two-day meeting which he had earlier planned to boycott. Party chief Nitin Gadkari, who had brought Joshi back into the executive, announced the end of a "small controversy" and declared that he and the Gujarat strongman will work together to strengthen the party, setting the stage for deliberations in the executive.

His resignation today comes just as posters indirectly targetting Modi, while promoting Joshi have been put up in Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat. This is the second poster of its kind to be put up, after BJP president Nitin Gadkari sacked Joshi from the party's national executive under pressure from Modi.

This one has the BJP's logo and reads 'Perform Rajdharma, Prajadharma and partydharma.