CHANDIGARH: After four-and-a-half years at the helm, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh resigned on Saturday citing continued humiliation by the Congress leadership over the past two months.
The CM resigned moments before a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, which passed a resolution authorising Congress president Sonia Gandhi to take a decision on Amarinder’s replacement. He did not attend the meeting.
“A resolution praising Amarinder Singh’s contribution towards Punjab and the Congress was unanimously passed at the meeting,” senior leader and party observer Ajay Maken said.
Amarinder’s days appeared to be numbered after the high command appointed his bête noire Navjot Sidhu as the state party chief. Sources said many ministers, MLAs and other leaders had also complained to Amarinder that there was growing anti-incumbency against him.
The other complaints against the outgoing CM were that he had failed to curb the drug mafia and his increasing reliance on the bureaucracy for governance. Amarinder was seen as being inaccessible as he was seldom seen meeting MLAs or reaching out to the public.
It is believed the party high command had commissioned a survey, which sources said revealed a massive anti-incumbency against him.
“I was humiliated thrice by the Congress leadership in the past two months. They called the MLAs to Delhi twice and now they convened a meeting of the CLP in Chandigarh. I had decided and informed Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the morning that he would resign,” he told reporters.
“Apparently they (the high command) do not have confidence in me and did not think I could handle my job. But I felt humiliated at the manner in which they handled the whole affair.”
Although he stressed that he had not resigned from the party, he made it clear that he would explore and exercise his future options when the time comes.
“There is always an option and I will use that option when the time comes. At the moment I am still in the Congress,” he said, adding that he would consult his supporters for future plan.