Captain Amarinder Singh resigned as the Punjab chief minister on Saturday, amid the ongoing political tussle with Navjot Singh Sidhu who was recently appointed as the chief of the Congress’ Punjab unit. The resignation comes less than five months before the Assembly elections in Punjab, and less than an hour before a legislature party (CLP) meeting called by the Congress party.
The resignation was announced by the senior Congress leader’s son Raninder Singh on Twitter
Addressing a press conference at the gate of the Raj Bhavan, the 79-year-old Amarinder Singh said he felt humiliated. “I called up Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) this morning and told her that I am going to resign. The thing is, this is happening for the third time that MLAs are being called for a meeting, my leadership is being questioned,” he said.
Singh said there is no plans for now to quit the Congress party, “but future politics is always an option”. He said that the future course of action will be decided after discussions with his loyalists. Political analysts say the move would hurt the Congress in the upcoming state polls.
Meanwhile, the meeting of the Congress legislators in the faction-ridden state unit began in Chandigarh as scheduled at 5pm.
“CM @capt_amarinder has met Punjab governor and submitted his and his council of ministers’ resignation,” the CM’s media adviser Raveen Thukral tweeted on Saturday evening. Singh was accompanied by his wife, Patiala MP Preneet Kaur and son Raninder Singh. Lok Sabha MPs Gurjit Singh Aujla and Ravneet Singh Bittu were also present.
