Pratap Singh Bajwa replaces Amarinder as Congress' Punjab chief

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday appointed Pratap Singh Bajwa as the new chief of its Punjab unit, replacing Amarinder Singh.

Bajwa, Congress MP from Gurdaspur, has replaced Amarinder Singh, Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said in New Delhi.

The exit of Amarinder Singh, a former chief minister and scion of the erstwhile royal family of Patiala, was imminent with the latest loss of the Congress in last month's by-election on the Moga assembly seat.

The Congress on Tuesday appointed Pratap Singh Bajwa as the new chief of its Punjab unit, replacing Amarinder Singh.

The Congress lost two successive assembly elections - in 2007 and 2012 - when Amarinder was in the forefront.

While in 2007, he was the incumbent chief minister, in the January 2012 assembly elections, when everyone thought that the Congress would return to power, the party lost to the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance.

In the Moga bypoll, held after its sitting legislator resigned and joined the Akali Dal, the Congress had to taste defeat on a seat traditionally held by it.

In a related development, Congress MP Harish Choudhary has been appointed a national secretary of the All India Congress Committee and given charge of party affairs in Punjab. Choudhary is MP from Rajasthan's Barmer.

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