Time to sacrifice everything for party: Ajay Maken to Congressmen

Congress leader Ajay Maken on Wednesday said the party was going through a tough phase and Congressmen should stand by it in these "testing times and sacrifice everything for it".

Maken's remarks came hours after Jyotiraditya Scindia, once considered among the closest aides of Rahul Gandhi, joined the BJP, ending his 18-year association with the Congress.

Scindia's exit from the Congress along with the resignation of 22 MLAs loyal to him from the Madhya Pradesh assembly has put the party-led government in the state in a tight spot.

"Today, the Congress is going through a tough phase. Some powers have been trying to weaken the nation and the party which keeps the country united. People who follow the Congress's ideology... it is their duty to stand by it in these testing times," Maken said in a statement in Hindi.

The Congress leader said in view of the present situation, it becomes important that the Congressmen accept all decisions of the Congress high command wholeheartedly and asked everyone to support the newly-appointed Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary and his team.

"One may wish for a post in the party... but this is not the time to ask for something, it is time we sacrificed everything for the party. We exist because of the Congress. Its ideology is over and above everything else and we will not let anyone weaken it," he said.

Earlier in the day, Congress president Sonia Gandhi also named Abhishek Dutt, Shivani Chopra, Jaikishan, Mudit Agarwal and Ali Hassan as vice presidents of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC).

Subhash Chopra had resigned as the Delhi Congress chief in February, taking moral responsibility for the party's debacle in the assembly polls held last month.

The Congress drew a blank for the second time in a row in the Delhi Assembly polls and reduced its vote share from 9.7 per cent in 2015 to 4.27 per cent this time.