Congress leader quits Karnataka party post

Senior Congress leader S.R. Patil on Sunday resigned as Working President of the party's Karnataka unit, owning moral responsibility for its defeat in the recent assembly election.

"I have resigned from the party post taking up moral responsibility for our losses in the assembly election," Patil told reporters here.

The Congress, which was in power, only won 78 of the 222 seats in the May 12 election.

"I was in-charge of the party's performance in north Karnataka. Had the party won more seats from the region, we would have formed the government independently," said Patil, who is presently in the legislative council.

Of the 90 seats in the state's region, the Congress won only 31.

Patil also claimed that he had sent his resignation to party President Rahul Gandhi by e-mail on May 25, two days after the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S)-Congress coalition government was formed with JD-S leader H.D. Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister and Congress state unit president G. Parameswara as Deputy Chief Minister.

Opposition BJP, which emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats, termed Patil's resignation as the beginning of his party's downfall in the state, where it came to power piggy-riding on the JD-S.

"The downfall of the empire that was built after mocking people's mandate has begun. @IN Karnataka senior leader Sri SR Patil resigns. This is only the beginning of the downfall of power hungry government," BJP Karnataka said on its twitter handle.

--IANS

bha-fb/vd