india

Updated: Jul 07, 2019 23:11 IST

Congress general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia on Sunday announced that he has submitted his resignation to Rahul Gandhi, hours after the party’s Mumbai chief, Milind Deora, stepped down from his post.

“Accepting the people’s verdict and taking accountability, I had submitted my resignation as General Secretary of AICC to Shri @RahulGandhi,” Scindia tweeted. “I thank him for entrusting me with this responsibility and for giving me the opportunity to serve our party.”

Scindia, 42, later clarified that he met Gandhi about 10 days ago and submitted his resignation.

“I am not a leader who gives orders to others. I think when there is a responsibility, there comes accountability as well. I am responsible if performance is not good and therefore I took the decision to resign,” he said.

Scindia and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were appointed general secretaries incharge of western and eastern Uttar Pradesh, respectively, on January 23 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Deora, 42, quit his post and said he looked forward to playing a role at the national level to help stabilise the Congress. He, too, expressed his desire to quit shortly after meeting Gandhi in New Delhi on June 26. “The same has been conveyed to party general secretaries Mallikarjun Kharge and KC Venugopal,” Deora said in a statement.

Deora was named the Mumbai Congress chief on March 25 in place of Sanjay Nirupam. His appointment was then seen as an attempt to end an infighting within the party.

Deora suggested the formation of a three-member panel to lead the party’s city unit for the assembly polls in Maharashtra due this year. “I had accepted the position in the interest of the party. I felt I should resign after meeting Rahul Gandhi. I suggested a panel and am being consulted by leaders to identify names. I look forward to playing a national role to help stabilise the party,” he said.

Nirupam opposed the idea of appointing the panel, saying it is “not at all appropriate” and will “ruin the party further”. He took a swipe at Deora. “A resignation is done when someone wants to reject something. But here a moment later, a national level position is being sought. Is this a resignation or a ladder to climb up? The party should be cautious with such ‘hard-working’ people,” Nirupam tweeted.

Gandhi, 49, brought finality to his decision to step down as the party president last week when he tweeted a four-page farewell note listing the reasons why he resigned. He went public with the letter after the party refused to accept his resignation. The Congress Working Committee is expected to meet soon to take a call on Gandhi’s resignation and his possible successor.

A series of resignations have followed since the Congress’s rout in April-May elections in which it managed to win 52 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. So far, general secretaries Harish Rawat and Deepak Babaria, foreign affairs department office-bearer Partap Singh Bajwa, legal cell head Vivek Tankha, farmer cell chief Nana Patole and Scheduled Castes department chairman Nitin Raut have resigned.

State chiefs Raj Babbar (UP), Niranjan Patnaik (Odisha), Ashok Chavan (Maharashtra) and Girish Chodankar (Goa) have also put in their papers.