Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Congress Party’s Punjab chief, resigned today, a day after Congress President Sonia Gandhi dismissed the party’s chiefs in the five states where it suffered devastating defeats in elections.
“As desired by the Congress President I have sent my resignation,” he tweeted, along with a picture 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
Mr Sidhu drew criticism for hailing the people of Punjab for reaching an “excellent” decision to welcome change by electing the Aam Aadmi Party in his first media interview following his party’s defeat. When questioned on how he could say that as Congress President, he stated that the people had chosen change and that 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 resignations were requested to “facilitate the reorganisation” of the state Congress units, said to Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.
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
The Congress, which was expected to be a key competitor in what was expected to be a heated multi-cornered battle in the state assembly elections, was thrashed by the AAP, which won 92 of the total 117 assembly seats. The Congress witnessed a significant drop in vote share compared to the 2017 elections, with the Congress Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi losing both seats he stood for.
Mr Sidhu himself was defeated by Jeevanjyot Kaur of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Amritsar East constituency by a margin of over 6,000 votes. Ms Kaur earned 39,520 votes, while he received 32,929 votes.
Along with Punjab, the Congress failed to mount any sort of challenge to the BJP in Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
