Congress party crisis deepens with two more resignations
Two senior leaders of the Congress party resigned yesterday from their posts in the aftermath of the party’s crushing defeat in parliamentary poll adding to the turmoil following the announcement of Rahul Gandhi’s resignation as the party president.
Party General Secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia and Mumbai party unit chief Milind Deora, both considered Rahul loyalists, announced their resignations in separate statements.
Scindia, who himself lost the parliamentary poll in Madhya Pradesh, was given the charge of eastern part of electorally the most crucial Uttar Pradesh along with another General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. However, the Congress could win just one out of the 80 seats in the state.
Deora said he was looking forward to playing a national role to help stabilize the party but did not specify what that role is going to be.
The latest crisis in the party relates to dissidence in the party’s units in Gujarat and Karnataka. The two lawmakers in Gujarat quit apparently after voting against the Congress candidates in Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat.
The bigger challenge for the Congress right now is to save its government in Karnataka where the resignation of the party’s 13 legislators as also of three lawmakers of its ruling coalition partner Janata Dal (Secular) has put a question mark on the survival of the 13-month-old government.
If the resignations are accepted by the assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar, the coalition will lose majority in the 224-member Assembly as its strength will come down to 104 as against the majority mark of 113. .
Rahul had announced his decision to quit at a committee of the Congress Working Committee, the party’s highest decision-making forum, on May 25, two days after results of the Lok Sabha elections were declared. After several weeks of impasse with the party which tried to persuade Rahul to withdraw his resignation, he tweeted an open letter, listing his reasons for resignation.
The Congress Working Committee is yet to officially accept Rahul’s resignation or choose his successor.
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