A day after poll rout, resignations fly in Congress

A day after Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, party's Uttar Pradesh chief Raj Babbar, Karnataka's H.K. Patil, Odisha's Niranjan Patnaik and Amethi district head Yogendra Mishra sent in their resignations to the high command owning moral responsibility for the drubbing.

Owning moral responsibility for the rout of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Babbar sent his resignation to Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

He lost the Fatehpur Sikri seat to Raj Kumar Chahar of the BJP by a margin of over four lakh votes.

"My best wishes to the winners. The UP Congress results have been disappointing. I have failed to discharge my responsibility effectively and I blame myself for this. I will meet the party leadership and place my views before them," the actor-turned-politician tweeted.

The Congress could manage to win only the Rae Bareli seat represented by UPA chairperson and senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. Even pary chief Rahul Gandhi could not save his family pocket borough Amethi, that has always voted in favour of the Congress for 39 years.

Union Minister and BJP candidate Smriti Irani trounced Gandhi by over 55,000 votes.

Amethi district head Mishra early on Froday sent his resignation letter to the party chief.

The BJP and its ally, Apna Dal, have won 64 of the 80 Uttar Pradesh seats for Lok Sabha, while the SP-BSP alliance got only 15 seats.

In Karnataka where the Congress-Janata Dal-Secular alliance could only manage to win 2 out of 28 seats. The BJP showed its best performance winning 25 seats. The Congress had won 8 seats in 2014.

State party Patil took moral responsibility and resigned from the post. In his letter to Gandhi, Patil said it was time for the Congress to introspect.

Odisha's Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik also resigned taking responsibility for the loss as BJP gained in vote share.

In Biju Janata Dal's home turf, the BJP made in-roads and won eight out of 21 seats. The BJD won 12 and the Congress one. The Congress could not open its account in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Odisha.

--IANS

aks/in