Punjab Congress crisis: Captain Amarinder Singh resigns as Chief Minister

Mangalore Today News Network

Chandigarh, Sep 18, 2021: Hours after he was asked to step down as the Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday resigned from the post. He met the Governor at Raj Bhavan and handed him his resignation letter, Amarinder’s son Ravinder Singh tweeted.

Earlier in the day,  Congress high command Sonia Gandhi was learnt to have asked Amarinder to step down to facilitate the election of a new leader. The Chief Minister, however, refused to give in. Sources said Amarinder spoke to Sonia this morning and told her he would rather resign from the party than face such “humiliation”. The state goes to the polls early next year.

A Congress Legislature Party meeting will be held at the party headquarters in Chandigarh Saturday. The AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab, Harish Rawat, called for the meeting at 5 pm today in a tweet at 11.39 pm Friday .

Sources said former PCC president Sunil Jakhar, once an associate of the Chief Minister, is among the names being considered for the chief minister’s post.

This comes barely two days after several MLAs wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, making it clear that the government cannot move ahead in this fashion, a senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader told The Indian Express. The letter, the party leader said, was very “strong in nature”. He said, “There was strong pressure. We could not have ignored the letter.”

Stepping in decisively in the face of “massive” pressure against Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh from a section of Congress MLAs in the state, the party high command on Friday night convened an urgent meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) on Saturday.

At 11.39 pm Friday, AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab, Harish Rawat, tweeted: “The AICC has received a representation from a large number of MLAs…requesting to immediately convene a meeting of the Congress Legislative Party of Punjab. Accordingly, a meeting of CLP has been convened at 5:00 PM on 18th September at Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee office. AICC directs PPCC to facilitate this meeting.”

He also posted that all Punjab Congress MLAs are “requested to kindly attend this meeting”.

Soon after Rawat’s tweet, state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu tweeted that a CLP meeting will be convened at 5 pm Saturday. Sources said Congress leaders Ajay Maken and Harish Chaudhary would be the central party’s observers at the CLP meeting; Rawat, too, would be present, it is learnt.

Courtesy:Indian Express