Gurudas Kamat has resigned from Congress for personal reasons: PC Chacko

Kamat served as minister of state for home, and minister for communications and IT in the Manmohan Singh government

The Congress on Tuesday sought to play down the resignation of former union Minister Gurudas Kamat from the party and said it came on personal grounds.

"As far as Gurudas ji's resignation is concerned, it has been purely on personal grounds," senior party spokesperson PC Chacko said.

"Congress is the biggest party in the country and people always keep leaving and joining the party," Chacko said.

"There were people who left the party and later joined it again. Boota Singh ji left the party and joined back just the next day. I was there to receive him," he added.

Chacko also said that no senior leader left the Congress since the party's debacle in the general elections 2014.

"No senior leader left the party after the defeat in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and 2015 Delhi assembly elections, and the morale of the Congress workers is still very high," he said.

Kamat resiged from the Congress on Monday, on the same day when senior Congress leader and former chief minister of Chhattisgarh Ajit Jogi announced that he was forming his own party.

At the time he resigned from the party, Kamat was general secretary in charge of Congress affairs in Rajasthan.

Kamat represented Mumbai North East constituency in the Lok Sabha five times – 1984, 1991, 1998, 2004, 2009 – and served as Minister of State for Home, and Minister for Communications and IT in the Manmohan Singh government.