What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
NEW DELHI: Following a massive debacle in recently-held assembly polls in five states, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked state unit chiefs of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur to step down.
“Congress President Sonia Gandhi has asked the PCC Presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur to put in their resignations in order to facilitate reorganisationof PCCs,” Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said on Twitter.
Soon after the party’s order, Uttarakhand Congress president Ganesh Godiyal stepped down from his post. “Taking moral responsibility for the party’s defeat in the state assembly elections, I have submitted my resignation today. I wanted to resign on the announcement of results but waited for the order of the high command,” he announced on Twitter.
प्रदेश में हुये विधानसभा चुनावों में पार्टी की हार की नैतिक जिम्मेदारी लेते हुए आज मैंने अपना इस्तीफा सौंप दिया है। मैं परिणाम के दिन ही इस्तीफा देना चाहता था पर हाईकमान के आदेश की प्रतिक्षा पर रुका था। pic.twitter.com/X5cOucrWB7
— Ganesh Godiyal (@UKGaneshGodiyal) March 15, 2022
The action comes just two days after the grand old party discussed the party’s massive rout in the five states, including Punjab where it lost power to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in a meeting of its top decision making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC).
Earlier in the day, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who is in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, held a meeting with senior state party leaders to review its poll performance. “We need to review the party’s loss honestly and need to make strategy to revive the party’s fortunes,” she told the attendees.
During the CWC meeting on Sunday, party sources said, Sonia Gandhi had told the party leaders that she was ready to make any sacrifice in interests of the party. Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were ready to resign from their posts, reports said.
The Congress party could not revive its fortunes in the assembly elections held in February-March, for which, counting of votes was held on March 10.
In Punjab where it was in power, the Congress party badly, winning only 18 of 117 seats in the state assembly. Political experts blame the party’s decision to replace chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh with Charanjit Singh Channi just a few months before the polls and state Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu’s feud with him as well as with Channi.
Despite aggressive campaigning by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party failed to make any difference in Uttar Pradesh with its seat tally falling to just two from seven in the 2017 assembly polls. State Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu lost his Tumkahi Raj assembly constituency.
Similarly in Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand, the Congress was unable to defeat the ruling BJP.
