A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked the chiefs of five states where Assembly elections had recently concluded to step down, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu officially resigned from his post.
Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, 16 March, Sidhu posted a one-line resignation letter captioned: "As desired by the Congress President I have sent my resignation...(sic)."
Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi met the party's MPs from Punjab at the Congress Parliamentary Party office, news agency ANI reported.
Sidhu's resignation comes a day after Sonia Gandhi had asked the party presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, and Manipur to put in their resignations in order to facilitate the re-organisation of the Pradesh Congress Committee in the states.
"Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi has asked the Pradesh Congress Committees Presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa & Manipur to put in their resignations in order to facilitate reorganisation of PCC’s," Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala had said in a tweet.
The demand for the resignation came after the party suffered defeats in all five states in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
While the Congress lost power in Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party, with its seats seeing a drastic reduction in number from 77 to 18, the party won merely 2 seats out of 403 in Uttar Pradesh.
Post-Poll Scenario
Later on Wednesday, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) released a statement that the party has appointed party leaders Rajani Patil in Goa, Jairam Ramesh in Manipur, Ajay Maken in Punjab, Jitendra Singh in UP and Avinash Pandey in Uttarakhand, to assess the post-poll situation and suggest organisational changes in the recently concluded poll states.
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