Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday sacked the party’s chiefs in the five states where it suffered poll defeats last week, indicating how severely the results have shaken the leadership.

Navjot Singh Sidhu in Punjab, Ganesh Godiyal in Uttarakhand, Girish Chodankar in Goa, Ajay Kumar Lallu in Uttar Pradesh, and Loken Singh in Manipur were asked to resign on Tuesday.

The announcement was made by the party’s communications chief Randeep Surjewala.

The swift action is at variance with the lethargic Congress culture. Bihar PCC chief Madan Mohan Jha resigned in December 2021 after the election debacle but his resignation hasn’t yet been accepted. In Gujarat, the state unit chief Amit Chavda quit in March 2021 after poor results in the civic elections but his successor was announced in December 2021.

While the Congress Working Committee was called to discuss the elections within three days of the results, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called the senior leaders of Uttar Pradesh to Delhi on Tuesday to examine the causes of the humiliating defeat.

The sense of urgency is clearly visible.

Sources said the Congress president intended to undertake organisational restructuring without delay to send out a positive message to the demoralised party workers.

There is a feeling among the workers that waiting silently till the completion of organisational election in August-September is a waste of time as the next critical battle in Gujarat is a very difficult challenge.