As desired by Congress President, Navjot Sidhu quits as Punjab chief

Chandigarh, Mar 15: As desired by the Congress President, party's Punjab chief Navjot Singh Sidhu resigned from his post today.

The cricketer-turned-politician shared information about his resignation on his twitter handle. "As desired by the Congress President I have sent my resignation," he wrote on Twitter with a copy of his letter addressed to Sonia Gandhi.

In his resignation letter written to Sonia Gandhi, Sidhu wrote, "I hereby resign as President (PPCC)."

Following the poor performances at the recently-concluded polls in five states, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked the party's state unit chiefs in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur to resign.

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).

Sidhu himself lost to the Aam Aadmi Party's Jeevanjot Kaur from the Amritsar East Assembly seat by 6,750 votes. He had taken over as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president in July last year. Several Punjab Congress candidates on Tuesday had blamed indiscipline and infighting among the state unit leaders for the party's crushing defeat.

Meanwhile, the leader of G-23, a group of 23 Congress leaders demanding an organisational overhaul, will be reportedly meeting on Wednesday to discuss their future course of action in the wake of the party's poor show in recently-concluded elections.