Poll debacle aftermath: Sonia Gandhi asks five state Congress chiefs to resign

Days after she had verbally offered to resign if the party wanted so, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has now shifted blame on state congress chapters demanding Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur to resign in order to facilitate the reorganisation of PCCs.

New Delhi:Days after she had verbally offered to resign if the party wanted so, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has now shifted blame on state congress chapters demanding Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) presidents of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur to resign in order to facilitate the reorganisation of PCCs.

Congress is reeling from the political debacle in the recently concluded assembly elections in all five states. The development comes two days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) discussed threadbare the reasons for the party's debacle in these Assembly polls. The Congress failed to win in any of the states and lost Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The CWC, in its marathon meeting, had asked the Congress president to initiate necessary changes in the organisation in order to strengthen it.

"The CWC unanimously reaffirms its faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and requests the Congress President to lead from the front, address the organisational weaknesses, effect necessary and comprehensive organisational changes in order to take on the political challenges," it had said after the meeting. According to sources, Sonia Gandhi in her speech during the CWC meeting had said that she, Rahul and Priyanka were ready to resign if the party felt so but CWC unanimously rejected it.

Following Sonia Gandhi's instructions, resignations have been given by Punjab PCC Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, Uttar Pradesh's Ajay Kumar Lallu, Uttrakhand's Ganesh Godiyal, Goa's Girish Chodankar and Loken Singh of Manipur.

Earlier today, Congress senior leader Kapil Sibal, who is also a member of G23 leaders, made a controversial remark stating that Gandhis should step aside and give some other leader a chance to lead the party. However, his statement drew criticism from within the party as Congress' whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore accused him of speaking the language of BJP-RSS.

He tweeted, "Why the RSS and BJP wants Nehru-Gandhi's out of the leadership? Because without Gandhi's leadership Congress will become Janata party. It's easy to kill Congress then it's easy to destroy the idea of India. Kapil Sibal knows it but why he is speaking the language of RSS/BJP."

Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit also slammed the party leadership over the matter by saying, "The leadership is arrogant the coterie is not affected despite losing one election after the other." The G23 leaders have also called a meeting tomorrow to analyze the reasons behind party's performance in the recent assembly elections and to decide their future course of action.