Months ahead of the Assembly election, the crisis in Punjab Congress deepens after Amarinder Singh resigned as the chief minister on Saturday.
Amarinder Singh said he decided to resign as the Punjab chief minister as he felt “humiliated” thrice.
“I was humiliated three times by the Congress leadership in the past two months. They called the MLAs to Delhi twice and now convened a CLP here in Chandigarh today,” Amarinder Singh told reporters.
A media report quoted sources as saying that more than 50 MLAs had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi demanding Amarinder Singh’s replacement as the Punjab chief minister.
A furious Amarinder Singh, who has been facing rebellion and in-house attacks for the last several months, told party chief Sonia Gandhi in the morning on Saturday that he would resign.
Also read: Navjot Singh Sidhu appointed as Punjab Congress chief, Amarinder Singh’s objections snubbed
Captain Amrinder Singh, after coming out of the Raj Bhawan submitting his resignation to Governor Banwarilal Purohit, told reporters, “I had taken a decision in the morning after speaking to the Congress President, I told her I will resign.”
He said Congress is free to “appoint whoever they trust”.
Singh added that he would “exercise his options when the time comes”.
He said, “I am with the Congress party and will decide on future politics after consulting my supporters.”
Amarinder Singh, who was at the helm in his second stint, told a news channel that he would never accept Sidhu as the chief minister of Punjab.
“He is a total disaster. He could not run a single ministry. How will he run the whole state? I know the man. He has no capability,” said Amarinder Singh.
It has been reported that last month, four ministers and around two dozen party MLAs raised fresh complaints against Amarinder Singh, telling the leadership that they had no faith in his ability to honour poll promises.
Amarinder Singh’s son Raninder Singh made it official with a tweet in which he said: “…must go now as I am proud to accompany my father to Raj Bhawan when he submits his resignation as CM of Punjab and leads us as head of our family into a new beginning et all.”