Congress High Command on Tuesday moved in to cut any further loss of face by removing Ashok Chavan as Maharashtra Chief Minister and Suresh Kalmadi as secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the wake of embarrassing scams allegedly involving them.

Hours before the start of what is expected to be a stormy session of Parliament, Congress General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi announced that Chavan has been asked by party chief Sonia Gandhi to step down. "Pending enquiry, his (Chavan's) offer of resignation has been accepted. He has been asked to tender his resignation to Governor (K Sankaranarayanan)," he said in a brief statement.