'New anti-mafia era in Punjab': Navjot Singh Sidhu welcomes AAP CM Bhagwant Mann

NEW DELHI: A day after stepping down as the

Punjab Congress

chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday conveyed his best wishes to Aam Aadmi Party chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and welcomed the "new anti-mafia era" in Punjab.


"The happiest man is the one from whom no one expects … Bhagwant Mann unfurls a new anti-Mafia era in Punjab with a mountain of expectations … hope he rises to the occasion, brings back Punjab on the revival path with pro-people policies … best always," Sidhu tweeted in endorsement of the AAP chief minister.


Sidhu had resigned as the Punjab Congress president on Wednesday on the instructions of Sonia Gandhi.

Sidhu was involved in a bitter power tussle first with former chief minister Amarinder Singh who eventually left the Congress to form his own party.

As the Punjab congress president, Sidhu was at constant loggerheads with Charanjit Singh Channi, who was appointed by the Congress high command to replace Amarinder Singh.

After the poll drubbing in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur, Sonia Gandhi had asked state unit chiefs to put in their papers.

The cricketer-turned-politician shared information about his resignation on his twitter handle.

“As desired by the Congress President I have sent my resignation …,” his tweet read.

Sidhu wrote a one-line resignation letter: “I hereby resign as President (PPCC).”

The Congress faced a humiliating defeat in Punjab as it could win only 18 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party got a historic mandate winning 92 seats in the 117-member assembly.

Such was the magnitude of Congress defeat that both Sidhu and the former Congress chief minister Charanajit Singh Channi could not save their seats.