The Congress high command has given a big blow to Navjot Singh Sidhu, former state president of Punjab Congress.
Despite the defeat in the assembly elections, he had been lobbying for several days to become the state Congress President, but Congress President Sonia Gandhi gave a blow to Sidhu and appointed Amarinder Singh Brar (Raja Warring) as the new one.
State Congress President has been appointed. Pratap Singh Bajwa, a former Rajya Sabha MP who won the election of MLA this time, has been made the leader of the Congress Legislature Party.
Sidhu was pressurizing the high command to become the state Congress president once again through his supporters for several days.
However, the high command was not satisfied with Sidhu's role during the assembly elections. It is believed that for this reason new faces have been given a chance in Punjab.
Congress has to face a crushing defeat in this time's assembly elections in Punjab. The Congress, which had won 77 seats in the 2017 assembly elections, has been reduced to just 18 seats this time.
On the other hand, the Aam Aadmi Party, which came second in the last assembly elections, won 92 seats this time with a thumping victory.
In AAP's storm, veterans like Navjot Singh Sidhu and Congress's face Charanjit Singh Channi for the post of CM have also faced defeat. Sidhu has faced the first defeat of his political life in the Amritsar East seat.
After the elections, a large section of Congress is citing the factionalism of the party and outright statements of Sidhu as the main reason for the party's defeat.
For this reason, after the election defeat, Sonia Gandhi demanded Sidhu's resignation from the post of state Congress president.
Sidhu had left the state Congress chief after the instructions of the high command, but in recent days he was once again engaged in putting pressure on the high command through his supporters.
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He once again tried to show his strength to the high command through meetings with his supporters.
Congress leaders supporting Sidhu had also demanded from the high command to hand over the command of the state president post to Sidhu once again.
On the other hand, the Congress leadership was keen to make a big change in the State Congress. The high command had already indicated that Sidhu would not be made the state president again.
Now, following the same path, Sonia Gandhi has handed over the command of state Congress President to Amarinder Singh Brar.
According to a release issued by Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal, the Congress President has appointed Bharat Bhushan Ashu as the working president and Pratap Singh Bajwa as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party.
Apart from this, Dr Rajkumar has been appointed as the Deputy Leader of the Congress Legislature Party.
Both Brar and Bajwa, the new state Congress president, is considered close to Rahul Gandhi. Channi was crowned as the new CM in Punjab after Captain Amarinder Singh resigned from the post of Chief Minister. After this Brar was made the transport minister.