Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath offers to quit from Congress state chief post: Sources

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has offered in quit as the Congress state president after the drubbing the party faced there in the Lok Sabha elections, according to sources. Kamal Nath offered the resignation during a meeting of Congress president Rahul Gandhi with the chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states on Monday.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of a continuing suspense over Gandhi's future role in the party and a spate of resignations by Congress leaders at various levels. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy are present at the meeting with Gandhi.

While the agenda of the meeting is not known, it is expected that there will be brainstorming over the dismal performance of the grand old party in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, especially in the Hindi heartland states where it won three Assembly elections in December last.

At the May 25 Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, where Gandhi had offered to resign, he had lamented that Nath and Gehlot had kept their sons over the party. Monday's meeting is Gandhi's first with the chief ministers since he told the CWC that he wanted to resign as the party chief.

On Saturday, Nath said a new state party head would be chosen soon.

"There is going to be a new state Congress president. We have to fight the BJP's election machinery. For this, we have to build our election machinery like theirs. We have to shape the Congress' organisation in a new way," he had told reporters on the eve of his Delhi visit.

He was responding to a query on whether MP Congress would soon have a new chief. Nath has been state unit chief since April last year. Nath's remarks come amid reports that Gandhi had expressed disappointment over none of the party leaders, holding top posts, taking responsibility for the party's Lok Sabha poll rout.

Nath on Saturday also said he had offered to resign in December last year, after he was chosen as chief minister post the Assembly polls, but he was asked to carry on.

(With PTI inputs)