Harish Rawat resigns as Congress general secretary

Harish Rawat, former chief minister of Uttarakhand has resigned from the post of Congress general secretary in-charge of Assam. Rawat took the moral responsibility for his party's flop show in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls and decided to quit.

Taking to Twitter, Rawat posted, “We the office bearers of the Congress are responsible for the party's defeat and organisational failure. I am responsible for the below-expected result of the party in Assam as in-charge of the state. I accept my shortcoming and resign as general secretary in-charge of state.”

लोकसभा चुनाव में कांग्रेस पार्टी की हार एवं संगठनात्मक कमजोरी के लिए हम पदाधिकारीगण उत्तरदायी है।
असम में पार्टी द्वारा अपेक्षित स्तर का प्रदर्शन न कर पाने के लिए प्रभारी के रूप में मैं उत्तरदायी हूँ। मैंने अपनी कमी को स्वीकारते हुए अपने महामंत्री के पद से पूर्व..@INCAssam pic.twitter.com/SxjZRERVAj

— Harish Rawat (@harishrawatcmuk) July 3, 2019

Rawat’s resignation comes just after Rahul Gandhi decided to quit as Congress president.

Earlier this month, Rawat had said, “We were not successful, but by strengthening the organisation, we can mount a challenge to the RSS-BJP's malicious propaganda.”

Showing his faith in Rahul’s leadership, Rawat went on to add, “If the leadership remains in his (Rahul Gandhi) hand, it is possible that he could lead the party to victory in 2022 assembly elections in states and also in 2024 Lok Sabha elections to defeat the BJP and Narendra Modi. That is why all democratic forces and Congress workers want to see Rahul Gandhi as Congress president.”

In the wake of party’s debacle in polls, Rahul had offered to quit on May 25 itself. However, his resignation was unanimously rejected by the Congress Working Committee. Despite continuous efforts from senior Congressmen to stop Rahul from resigning, he remained adamant and finally took his call on Wednesday i.e. July 3.

A letter which Rahul posted on Twitter reads, “Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019. It would be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as President of the party.”

It is an honour for me to serve the Congress Party, whose values and ideals have served as the lifeblood of our beautiful nation.

I owe the country and my organisation a debt of tremendous gratitude and love.

Jai Hind 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/WWGYt5YG4V

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 3, 2019

In the recently concluded LS polls, Congress had managed to win only 3 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam.