Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik resigns

Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik on Friday tendered his resignation to party president Rahul Gandhi after the party managed to win just nine Assembly seats in the state while only one of its Lok Sabha candidates won in the state.

"I tried my best, tried to put in the hard work but I have failed," Patnaik told reporters here claiming moral responsibility for the party's poor performance.

"I was also fighting in the elections and faced a debacle along with the party. I take moral responsibility and relinquish this job, I have communicated this to the AICC president. The fact that it has happened throughout India does not matter, moral responsibility is a personal thing," he said.

Pointing out that his party had won less seats in the state assembly elections held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.

He, however, pointed out that the addition of new faces in the party in Odisha was a positive sign.

"Getting a few more Lok Sabha seats is not enough, we got less in the assembly elections. It is a great loss for us. The only good which has come out of this is the party has got new young leaders. I wanted to give tickets to 80 youth but managed just 67, but that's good," Patnaik said.

The Congress leader congratulated the BJD and PM Modi for their decisive wins and expressed the hope that youth entering politics will choose and stick with their ideology in the future.

"The people have shown faith in Naveen Patnaik and voted for him. Congratulations to both him and Modiji. Politics should not be commercial but ideology based that is my only message to the youth entering politics today," he said.

BJD managed to win 12 Lok Sabha seats while BJP managed eight in the state. In the state assembly elections, BJD won 108 seats while it is leading on four seats to secure Naveen Patnaik's return to power in the state.