Less than a week after being dethroned in Punjab and facing crushing defeat in four other states, the Congress has asked its state units heads to resign. Congress President Sonia Gandhi took this decision following two-day deliberations by the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the apex decision-making body of the party. After India’s grand old party faced a humiliating defeat, it was only expected that heads would roll.
Congress lost Punjab to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and failed miserably to put up a fight in the four states where they were hoping for a win. Cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was appointed as the Congress chief in Punjab eight months ago is among those who were asked to resign from their designations.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted on Tuesday evening, “Congress President, Sonia Gandhi has asked PCC ( Pradesh Congress Committee) Presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur to put in their resignations in order to facilitate reorganisation” of PCCs.”
The party faced an extreme backlash in Punjab and was not even close to putting up a fight. This happened months after Sidhu and former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh got into a tiff, Sidhu also had a tiff with his eleventh-hour replacement Charanjit Singh Channi.
In her speech to senior leaders at the Congress Working Committee’s poll post-mortem, Sonia Gandhi also offered to resign along with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Mrs. Gandhi made the resignation offer as an ultimate sacrifice in favour of the party but it was rejected. Rahul Gandhi does not hold any post in the party after he had resigned as Congress president owning responsibility for the Congress performance in the 2019 general elections. After a four-and-a-half-hour meeting, the CWC declared that Sonia Gandhi would remain the party president which gave her the authority to take “effective and immediate steps” to address organisational issues.
The party also posted a video of all the former leaders of the party, including former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, on Twitter, signalling that the Gandhis would always remain in charge.
