In a fresh spree of resignations, senior Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Milind Deora resigned from their posts.
The resignations come smack in the middle of the Karnataka crisis and at a time when the party leadership is coping with the resignation of its president Rahul Gandhi , owning up responsibility for the Lok Sabha election debatable.
Mr. Scindia was general secretary in charge of western Uttar Pradesh , while Mr. Deora was heading the Mumbai Congress . Both had lost their seats in the Lok Sabha election.
In line with Rahul stand
The two resignations are in line with Mr. Gandhi’s comment in his open letter: “Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019.”
“Accepting the people’s verdict and taking accountability, I had submitted my resignation as General Secretary of AICC to Shri @RahulGandhi. I thank him for entrusting me with this responsibility and for giving me the opportunity to serve our party,” Mr. Scindia tweeted.
Mr. Deora said he was looking forward to playing a role at the national level to help stabilise the party. He recommended establishment of a provisional collective leadership, comprising three senior leaders, to oversee the party’s city unit till the Maharashtra Assembly elections, which are due later this year.
New realities
He told reporters that the political realities had changed since the Lok Sabha election results, and all of them had to get ready for the roles that these times demanded.
Mr. Deora had expressed his desire to quit after meeting Mr. Gandhi in New Delhi on June 26. “I had accepted MRCC presidentship in the interest of uniting the party. I felt I should also resign after meeting Rahul Gandhi,” he said. Mr. Deora was appointed president of the Mumbai Congress before the Lok Sabha election.
The resignations come at a time when the Congress is yet to settle the question who will lead the party. A Congress Working Committee meeting is likely to be called by next week to deliberate on the issue.
The developments coincide with the crisis in the JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka.
“The crisis can be clearly averted if we have a strong person at the Centre who could negotiate with the 11 dissenting Congress MLAs,” a senior Karnataka Congress leader said.
Insiders claim that the dissent had been brewing for the last two months but no one interceded.
A top leader from Karnataka said both the PCC president, Dinesh Gundu Rao, who was appointed to head the State unit after the Assembly polls and the General Secretary in-charge K.C. Venugopal are equally to blame.
“Mr. Rao does not have the political heft to negotiate with the likes of Siddaramiah. When the first Congress MLA resigned he was abroad. Mr. Venugopal at best can only be a negotiator but without a president in place there is not much that he can do,” the leader added.
