After months the infighting within the Punjab Congress and increasing pressure from the Navjot Singh Sidhu for change in leadership, the party’s senior minister and Punjab CM Amarinder Singh has tendered his resignation Saturday, September 18.
Talking to reporters after submitting his resignation, Amarinder Singh said that he resigned after he was humiliated by the party leadership. ‘I feel humiliated’, he said. Referring to the Congress Legislative Party meeting of the party MLAs called today evening, he said that this is the third time such meeting has been called. This indicated that the party has some doubts on him, he said, adding that he has felt humiliated by this.
He refused to comment on his future course of action. He added that he has not left the Congress party, and remains a party member. He said that he along with his supporters will decide on the future course of action after discussions.
As per sources, Captain Amarinder Singh had called for a meeting with his loyalists at 2 pm at his residence. After the meeting, the CM went to the Punjab governor’s house and tendered his resignation to Banwarilal Purohit, along with the resignation of the council of ministers.
Earlier, speculations were doing the rounds that the party high command has asked Singh to submit his resignation.
Ahead of his resignation, his son Raninder Singh had confirmed the development. He had tweeted that he is accompanying his father to the governor’s house. More importantly, Raninder Singh had also added that Amarinder Singh will lead them “as head of our family into a new beginning et al.”
Reportedly, around 40 MLAs had written to party leadership expressing their dissatisfaction with captain Amarinder Singh and demanding his removal from the post of the chief minister.
According to reports, Amarinder Singh’s decision to quit his post came after the Congress party called for a Congress Legislative Party meeting at 5 PM today without informing him. Amarinder Singh proposed to resign from his office ahead of the CLP meeting, telling Sonia Gandhi that he “cannot take any more humiliation.” The fact that the CLP meeting was called without informing him, he is the leader of the CLP, was considered as a huge humiliation by him.
He then scheduled a 2 pm meeting with his supporters. The Congress party’s top command reportedly instructed party MLAs to skip Captain Amarinder Singh’s 2 pm meeting and instead attend the 5 pm gathering.
‘Cannot continue with the humiliation’, Captain Amarinder Singh tells Sonia Gandhi
Earlier in the day, Captain Amarinder Singh had called Congress President Sonia Gandhi and veteran Congressman Kamal Nath, telling them that he was a “true Congressman at heart” who would do nothing to harm the party’s chances in the Punjab Assembly Elections 2022. He had told Sonia Gandhi that he had accepted all of the political changes that had happened up until that point on her word, but that he could no longer bear such “humiliation”.