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Updated: Aug 03, 2019 07:40 IST

The Congress, which is in the throes of a national leadership crisis following Rahul Gandhi’s resignation, is facing a similar situation in Andhra Pradesh.

There are no takers for the post of Pradesh Congress Committee president since former minister N Raghuveera Reddy quit on May 19, four days before counting of votes for the April-May general elections. “I was the first PCC chief to resign from the post owning moral responsibility for the party’s defeat in the elections,” Reddy said on Friday.

The Congress got 3,68,878 votes, just 1.17% of the total 3.13 crore votes cast in the state. The party’s 2019 performance was worse than in the 2014 polls when the people were angry about the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. In 2014, Congress bagged 8,02,072 votes, indicating it has lost more ground in the last five years.

The Congress high command has not responded to Reddy’s resignation. “I sent a reminder to the party high command last month, requesting it to accept my resignation. I also met K Venugopal, AICC general secretary, a few weeks ago and requested that somebody be appointed PCC chief. But there is no action on my request,” Reddy said.

Veteran Congress leader Chinta Mohan said unless the leadership issue at the national level was resolved, there was no possibility of finding a successor to Reddy. “We are expecting the Congress Working Committee to take a call after the Parliament session ends,” he said on Friday.

Rajesh Mallu, a political analyst from Visakhapatnam, said the Congress had no scope for recovery even if somebody is appointed PCC chief. “Congress has become defunct, as its cadre have disintegrated,” he said.