Punjab Congress Crisis: 78 MLAs Wanted Amarinder Singh To Be Replaced, Says Surjewala

Surjewala’s revelation comes months ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections and may give fresh ammunition to the opposition to target the Congress.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala (Photo Credit: PTI)

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing upheaval in the grand old party’s Punjab unit, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Saturday said 78 out of 79 MLAs had written to the party high command demanding the state’s chief minister should be changed.

“Out of 79, 78 MLAs had written that the Chief Minister should be changed. When a Chief Minister loses the trust of MLAs, then he should himself step down from the post,” he said commenting on the ongoing political crisis in Punjab Congress and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

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Surjewala’s revelation comes months ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections and may give fresh ammunition to the opposition to target the Congress.

Earlier on September 20, Captain Amarinder Singh tendered his resignation as the Punjab chief minister citing “humiliation” that he had to face in the Congress party.

“Publicly I felt humiliated and personally I was hurt because my relations with the Gandhis go back to the days when Rajiv Gandhi and I were in Doon School in 1954,” he said.

Captain Amarinder Singh was involved in a long feud with Navjot Singh Sidhu before resigning from the post.

The former Punjab chief minister, who also quit the Congress, has, however, made it clear that he is not joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The clarification came after he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital.

Meanwhile, there are reports suggesting that the former chief minister may float his own political party. This has not been confirmed yet.