Congress president Sonia Gandhi today sacked the party’s chiefs in the five states where it suffered tremendous election losses last week.
Last week, the Congress lost Punjab to Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and also did not win any of the four states, where it had expected a comeback – or a tight fight with the BJP. Sonia Gandhi’s action is a follow-up to the Congress leadership meeting on Sunday.
Congress President, Sonia Gandhi asked the PCC Presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, and Manipur to put in their resignations in order to facilitate the reorganization of PCC’s.
Hon'ble #Congress President, Smt. #SoniaGandhi ji has asked the PCC Presidents of #UttarPradesh #Uttarakhand #Punjab #Goa & #Manipur to put in their resignations in order to facilitate reorganisation of PCC’s.
– Shri @rssurjewala
Chairman @AICCMedia #AssemblyElections2022 pic.twitter.com/RAK0JS2eYH— Vamshi Chand Reddy వంశీచంద్ రెడ్డి (@VamsiChandReddy) March 15, 2022
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted that the resignations were sought to “facilitate the reorganization” of the state Congress units. Navjot Singh Sidhu, who took over as Punjab Congress chief eight months ago, is among the leaders asked to resign.
In Sonia Gandhi’s speech to senior leaders at the Congress Working Committee (CWC)’s poll post-mortem, she also offered to resign along with her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Mrs. 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 ANI.
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.
After a four-and-a-half-hour meeting, the CWC said Sonia Gandhi would retain her party president position and authorized her to take “effective and immediate steps” to address organizational issues.
The CWC even put out a video of all its former leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, on its Twitter handle, signaling that the Gandhis would remain in charge.
The Congress “dissidents” or G-23 – the group of 23 leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi calling for sweeping organizational 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 G-23, said the Gandhis should step aside and give some other leader a chance 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.
In the meantime, a minor battle took place on Twitter with Congress Pawan Khera reacting sharply to Kapil Sibal’s criticism of the party asking Mr. Sibal to freely fight in the upcoming elections for the position as party president instead of chanting every day against the current leadership.
.@drharshvardhan did not ask you to step aside from Chandni Chowk. He fought an election and defeated you @KapilSibal. Those who want to lead @INCIndia are free to fight upcoming election for the position of party president instead of chanting everyday against current leadership
— Pawan Khera (@Pawankhera) March 15, 2022
It is going to be a long overhaul with many dissenters along the way while Congress works to strengthen its structure.