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Congress Poll Debacle: Sonia Gandhi asks Congress presidents of five states to resign

Congress party chiefs of five states that suffered electoral loss have been asked to resign in a bid to revamp the PCCs in all the five states.

ByIFP Bureau

Updated 16 Mar 2022, 8:18 am

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Congress party interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday sought the resignations of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chiefs of five states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur, for the party's poor performance in the Assembly elections held recently.

The move is aimed at reorganising the PCCs after the party's poll drubbing in the recently-concluded Assembly elections in all the five states, party sources said.

"Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has asked the PCC presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur to put in their resignations in order to facilitate reorganisation of PCC’s," CWC member Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted.

The development comes two days after the Congress Working Committee reviewed the reasons for the party's poll debacle in the five states.

Owning moral responsibility for the party's defeat, Ganesh Godiyal resigned as Uttarakhand Congress president on Tuesday,

"As you are aware, despite your cooperation and the efforts of the state party leadership, the Congress had to face defeat. Being the PCC president, I resign from my post owning moral responsibility for it," he said in a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi.

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Manipur Congress suffered a massive loss as it secured only five seats though it fielded candidates in 53 of the 60 assembly constituencies in the state, while in Punjab the Congress collapsed after months of infighting as Sidhu clashed with veteran Amarinder Singh as well as his eleventh-hour replacement Charanjit Singh Channi.

Also Read: Manipur Congress on intensive membership drive after Assembly poll drubbing, targets 3-lakh new members

In her speech to senior leaders at the Congress Working Committee (CWC)’s poll post-mortem, Sonia Gandhi offered to resign along with her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Gandhi presented the resignation offer as the “ultimate sacrifice in the interest of the party”, according to party leaders. But it was “unanimously rejected”, the leaders said.

“Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi said that she along with her family members Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are ready to sacrifice their posts for the party, but we all rejected this,” senior leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhary told news agency.

Rahul Gandhi, however, does not hold any post in the party after he quit as Congress president owning responsibility for the Congress’s 2019 national election drubbing.

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After a four-and-a-half hour meeting, the CWC said Sonia Gandhi would remain party president and authorised her to take “effective and immediate steps” to address organisational issues.

The party even put out a video of all its former leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, on its Twitter handle, signalling that the Gandhis would remain in charge.

The the group of 23 Congress dissident leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi calling for sweeping organisational changes - have been critical of the Gandhis’ leadership and have openly called for a complete overhaul.

Former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, a very vocal member of the group, said the Gandhis should step aside and make way for other leaders to lead the party.

“Leadership is in cuckoo land... I want a ‘Sab ki Congress’. Some want a ‘Ghar ki Congress’,” Mr Sibal told the Indian Express in an interview.

 

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Tags:

Manipur CongressSonia Gandhiassembly electionsCWCPCC presidentsManipur congress president

IFP Bureau

IFP Bureau

IMPHAL, Manipur

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