Outgoing Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi submitted his resignation to the governor of the state, on Friday, 11 March, following the Congress' defeat in the 2022 Assembly polls.
"I have given my resignation to the Governor. He told me and the cabinet to continue until the new government is sworn in. I accept the people's mandate," Channi said.
"We will always be there to serve the people of Punjab. We will continue doing our duty & be among them. I request the new government to continue the public welfare projects and schemes that we brought in, in the last 111 days," he added.
The Congress could only manage to win 18 seats out of a total of 117 in the Punjab Assembly.
Meanwhile, Channi lost both the seats he contested from. In the Chamkaur Sahib seat, Channi lost to the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) candidate Dr Charanjit Singh by nearly 8,000 votes. Channi also contested from Bhadaur in Barnala district, where he was up against AAP's Labh Singh Ugoke and the Shiromani Akali Dal’s Satnam Singh Rahi. He lost to Ugoke by an even more significant margin, over 37,000 votes.
'You Reap What You Sow': Navjot Singh Sidhu
Congress Punjab chief Navjot Singh Sidhu later said that this election was "for a change."
"You reap what you sow. This election was for a change. People took a great decision. Public is never wrong. I'm not going into a deep thought of whether people accepted Channi's face as CM's candidate or not [sic]," he was quoted as saying by ANI.
"People who dug holes for Sidhu got buried in holes 10 feet deeper. Let bygones be bygones. People have voted for AAP for a change, I congratulate them. New seeds have to be sown. Not 'chinta' but 'chintan' should be done [sic]," he added.
AAP Scores Maiden Win in Punjab
The AAP scored its maiden victory in the state, winning 92 seats.
Meanwhile, AAP leader and the party's chief ministerial candidate for Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, on Friday, announced that he would take oath as the chief minister of the state at Bhagat Singh's ancestral village Khatkar Kalan in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district.
Mann said he would announce the date for oath-taking after his meeting with the party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi on Friday.
Mann won the Dhuri seat with a margin of 58,206 votes.
(With inputs from ANI.)
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