Navjot Singh Sidhu Quits As Punjab Congress Chief ‘As Desired By Congress President’

Amritsar:

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. 

“As desired by the Congress President I have sent my resignation,” he wrote on Twitter with a copy of his letter addressed to Sonia Gandhi. 

As desired by the Congress President I have sent my resignation … pic.twitter.com/Xq2Ne1SyjJ

— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) March 16, 2022

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had yesterday tweeted that the resignations were sought to “facilitate the reorganisation” of the state Congress units.

“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 said. 

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.

— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 15, 2022

Mr Sidhu, in his first interaction with the media following the party’s defeat, had drawn flak for praising the people of Punjab for making an “excellent” decision to usher change by bringing the Aam Aadmi Party to power. 

When asked how he can say that being the Congress president, he had asserted that the people have chosen change and they are never wrong. “The voice of the people is the voice of God. We should understand with humility and bow to it,” he said. 

The Congress, which was initially seen as a major contender in what was supposed to be a fierce multi-cornered fight in the state assembly elections, suffered a drubbing at the hands of AAP which posted a massive victory winning 92 of the total 117 assembly seats. The grand old party saw a sharp decline in its vote shared compared to the 2017 elections, with even the Congress Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi losing both the seats he contested. 

Mr Sidhu himself lost the Amritsar East seat to Jeevanjyot Kaur of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by a margin of over 6,000 votes. While he polled 32,929 votes, Ms Kaur received 39,520 votes.