Just days before Punjab goes to polls, senior Congress leader from the State and former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar on Tuesday resigned from the party ending 46 years of association.

 Kumar, who sent his resignation to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, said that he could best serve national interests outside the Congress fold. He said the new Congress that’s being built has a dark future. “Having given my thoughtful consideration to the matter, I have concluded that in the present circumstances and consistent with my dignity, I can best serve larger national causes outside the party fold. I am accordingly quitting the party after a long association of 46 years and hope to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the dignitarian promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters,” he said in his letter.

 69-year-old Kumar also criticised the manner in which the Congress “treated former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh”. “The former CM was humiliated publicly and that was against the principles the Congress has stood for,” he said questioning the open vying for the CM post in Punjab saying it showed the party in “very poor light”.

Stating that the Aam Aadmi Party was about to win Punjab, Kumar said that the Congress as a national party faced a major challenge with regional players emerging much stronger.

 The former Minister, who served in the Cabinet of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh between 2004 and 2014, said that he had not decided on the future course of action but would remain in active politics to serve the interests of “people of the country”.

Kumar, whose two generations have been associated with the Congress, blamed his decision on “lack of leadership” in the party.

Noting that he had persevered enough in the party, Kumar said that the Congress was unable to reinvent itself and continued to decline.

He said that the recent controversies around the statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and the Padma Bhushan to Ghulam Nabi Azad further cemented his decision to quit.

A vocal advocate of “dignity and respect in politics”, he said: “I didn’t feel I belonged to the Congress anymore.