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Two Congress leaders resign


Published : 07 Jul 2019 08:59 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 06:23 PM

Two key Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi, and Milind Deora, on Sunday resigned from their organizational posts, adding to the turmoil in the party over the party's crushing defeat in parliamentary elections.

The first to announce the resignation was Deora as Mumbai Congress President following a meeting with Rahul Gandhi who has also quit as the Congress chief and this was followed by Scindia, the party General Secretary, soon after.

Both Scindia and Deora belong to the young generation of Congress leaders and considered Rahul loyalists. "Accepting the people's verdict and taking accountability, I had submitted my resignation as General Secretary of AICC (All India Congress Committee) to Shri Rahul Gandhi," Scindia tweeted.

Deora said he was going to take up a national role to stabilize the Congress but did not specify what the role would be.

Ahead of the elections, Rahul had appointed Scindia and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as in-charges for Uttar Pradesh, electorally the most crucial Indian state with 80 parliamentary seats, in a bid to revive the party the state.

The Congress, however, could win only one seat, with BJP winning 62 out of 80 seats in the state. In an embarrassment to the Congress, Rahul himself lost from his family stronghold Amethi.

Overall, the Congress won only 52 of 543 Lok Sabha seats. Scindia, a four-time parliamentarian from Guna in Madhya Pradesh, also lost his time-tested constituency.

Taking responsibility for the loss, Rahul had quit as party president on May 25. A spate of resignations by local level leaders followed when it became clear that he was not going to have rethink on his decision.

Earlier this week, Rahul made public an open letter on his Twitter, listing the reasons for resigning from the top party post.