A day after Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in Punjab Assembly elections, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Friday submitted his resignation to Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
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“The cabinet has given its recommendation to the Governor for dissolving the 15th Vidhan Sabha and I have submitted my resignation to the Governor,” said Mr. Channi here, after meeting the Governor.
“The Governor has asked me to continue till the new government is sworn in. We accept people’s mandate. We will keep serving the people. People of Punjab have voted for change, they wanted a change,” he said.
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The Punjab cabinet gave the approval to recommend the State Governor Banwarilal Purohit for the dissolution of 15th Punjab State Assembly.
The decision was taken during a virtual Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi here.
An official statement said that the Punjab Governor was authorised to dissolve the State legislature as per sub-clause (b) of clause (2) of Article 174 of the Constitution of India.
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This move being a Constitutional necessity would now pave a way for the formation of the 16th Punjab State Assembly.
Channi congratulates incoming government
Mr. Channi congratulated the incoming government and hoped that the new government would earnestly implement the promises made to the people.
The statement said that Mr. Channi expressed hope that the decisions taken by his government in the public interest such as reduction of electricity rates, slashing VAT on oil besides decreasing rates of sand and gravel etc. would be continued by the next government.
In the Punjab Assembly election, the Aam Aadmi Party registered a landslide victory by wining 92 seats while the ruling Congress was restricted to 18 seats. In the 117-member Assembly, the Shiromani Akali Dal bagged three seats while its alliance partner Bahujan Samaj Party won one. The Bharatiya Janata Party got two seats. One seat went to an Independent candidate.