After the party's drubbing in the just-concluded Assembly polls in five states, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked its state unit chiefs in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur to put in their papers.
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).
"Congress President, Smt. 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 PCCs," chief spokesperson of the party Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter.
While Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu was appointed to the post only a few months ago, the Uttarakhand unit president of the party, Ganesh Godiyal, and his Manipur counterpart Loken Singh were also appointed before the Assembly elections.
Gandhi has also sought the resignation of Girish Chodankar, who heads the Goa unit of the party, and Uttar Pradesh PCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu.
"After reaching Delhi on Tuesday, as soon as I came to know that the party has asked for accountability and the resignation of the office-bearers of all the states where it lost elections, I have also submitted my resignation. I will continue to fight as a Congress worker," Godiyal said in a tweet in Hindi.
Sources said the Congress chief will reconstitute the state units.
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 Smt. 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.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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