A day after Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi sacked the party’s chiefs in the five states where it suffered humiliating losses, the party’s Punjab chief Navjot Singh Sidhu resigned from his post today.
The cricketer-turned-politician shared information about his resignation on his Twitter handle. “As desired by the Congress president, I have sent my resignation,’’ his tweet read.
In his resignation letter written to Sonia Gandhi, Sidhu wrote, “I hereby resign as President (PPCC).” The Congress faced a humiliating defeat in Punjab, winning only 18 seats, while the Aam Aadmi Party romped home with 92 seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly.
The resignations sought to “facilitate the reorganisation” of the state Congress units, according to Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.
Sidhu himself lost to the Aam Aadmi Party’s Jeevanjot Kaur from the Amritsar East Assembly seat by 6,750 votes. He had taken over as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president in July last year.
Several Punjab Congress candidates on Tuesday had blamed indiscipline and infighting among the state unit leaders for the party’s crushing defeat.
“Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi has asked the PCC Presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa & Manipur to put in their resignations in order to facilitate reorganisation of PCC’s,” he had said.
The state of Punjab, previously under Congress rule, had seen massive infighting between Navjot Singh Sidhu and then CM Capt Amarinder Singh, who was later replaced with Charanjit Singh Channi.
(With inputs from agencies)
