Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday sacked the party’s chiefs in the five states where it suffered humiliating poll defeats last week including heavyweight cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was in charge of Punjab.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept Punjab winning 92 of 117 seats leaving the Congress with only 18.
In an election which has surely catapulted Kejriwal to the national politics, Congress top guns including Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who had contested from two seats, have suffered defeats.
Navjot Singh Sidhu had also lost his seat in Punjab and accepted his defeat in a tweet.
The party also failed to put up a strong fight in three other states where it had hoped for a comeback – Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
After being decimated in five state elections, the Congress’s top decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), met on Sunday.
Sonia Gandhi’s move is seen as a follow-up to the meeting where it was decided that she would continue as the interim chief of the Congress.