Following the Congress’ poor performance in the Assembly elections in five states, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday sought the resignations of state party chiefs of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.
According to Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, the move has been taken to facilitate the reorganization of the party’s state units. “Congress President Sonia Gandhi has asked the PCC Presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur to put in their resignations to facilitate the reorganization of PCCs,” tweeted Surjewala.
Ajay Kumar Lallu, the president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, on Tuesday resigned from his post taking moral responsibility for the party’s debacle in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar also resigned on Tuesday taking moral responsibility.
Navjot Singh Sidhu is the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. Further, Nameirakpam Loken Singh holds the responsibility of the president of the Manipur Congress. Ganesh Godiyal is the Congress chief of Uttarakhand.
Congress high command’s move comes after Congress Working Committee’s meeting on Sunday. The meeting was held after the party’s crushing defeat in the recently concluded Assembly elections in five states. “The CWC unanimously reaffirms its faith in the leadership of Smt. Sonia Gandhi and requests the Congress President to lead from the front, address the organisational weaknesses, effect necessary and comprehensive organisational changes in order to take on the political challenges,” it had said after the meeting.
The results of five Assembly polls came as a shock to the Congress which was hoping to do well to revive its prospects for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and to fend off the emerging challenge from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Trinamool Congress to replace it as the fulcrum of anti-BJP politics in the country.
Meanwhile, Congress senior leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday demanded that the “Gandhis should step aside from the leadership role and give a chance to someone else to lead the party”. Since the poll debacle of 2014, the Congress has lost elections continuously except on a few occasions, he said, adding: “The CWC has reposed faith in the party leadership, but those outside the CWC feel otherwise as many have left the party and new leaders should be given a chance to lead the party”.
Sibal is one of the signatories of the letter written to Sonia Gandhi for bringing reforms within the party, but in the CWC meet on Sunday, sources said that Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma did not raise the issue of leadership change. Sonia Gandhi in the CWC on Sunday had offered to step aside from the leadership along with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, but was turned down by the CWC. The party’s Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore on Tuesday hit out at Sibal for his remarks against the leadership and accused him of speaking the language of the RSS-BJP. Tagore, a staunch Rahul Gandhi loyalist, said the RSS and the BJP want the Gandhis to be out of leadership position in order to kill the Congress party and destroy the Idea of India. “Why the RSS and BJP wants Nehru-Gandhi’s out of the leadership? Because without Gandhis’ leadership Congress will be become Janata party. It’s easy to kill Congress then it’s easy to destroy the idea of India (sic),” Tagore said on Twitter. “Kapil Sibal knows it, but why is he speaking the language of RSS/BJP?” he asked.
Congress’s G-23 leaders will meet at Kapil Sibal’s residence on Wednesday to discuss the situation obtaining in the party in the aftermath of its loss in the Assembly polls in five states and the CWC’s endorsement of Sonia Gandhi’s continuance as president. Sources close to the Group of 23 leaders said they have also invited Congressmen who don’t constitute the bloc but feel changes are required, including at the leadership level, to revive its electoral fortunes.