NEW DELHI: A day after Rahul Gandhi formally stepped down from the Indian National Congress president post, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Thursday tendered his resignation as the Congress general secretary in-charge of Assam, taking moral responsibility of the party’s dismal performance in the Lok Sabha polls. In Assam, Congress won just three seats out of 14 in the general elections.
Rawat is the first general secretary to resign after Gandhi’s resignation. The Uttarakhand Congress leader said that he and other office bearers of the party were responsible for the defeat and organisational failure and could not perform as expected in the Northeastern state.
“As in-charge of the state, I am responsible for the below-expected result of the party in Assam.I accept my shortcoming and resign as general secretary in-charge of state,” Rawat said on Twitter.
On Wednesday, Gandhi announced his resignation and stressed that he was leaving after taking accountability of the defeat. Gandhi also persuaded a section of leaders and workers to resign from their posts. “Accountability is critical for the future growth of our party. Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019”, Gandhi said.
Party’s head of Legal, Human Rights and RTI cells, Vivek Tankha, AICC in-charge of of Madhya Pradesh Deepak Babaria were among the leaders who have quit along with around 200 office bearers. AICC treasure and senior leader Ahmed Patel responded to Gandhi’s resignation as ‘unfortunate”. According to party sources, leaders are trying to convene a CWC meeting next week to find a suitable person as president. Gandhi will remain as the chief till the CWC take a call on his resignation. (UNI)
