Tamil Nadu Congress chief Elangovan steps down over Assembly poll results

In a huge jolt to the Congress party in Tamil Nadu, Congress Committee President E V K S Elangovan has tendered his resignation owning moral responsibility for the poor performance of the party in the last month’s Assembly elections. “Our party’s state unit chief submitted his resignation on June 15 itself as electoral results were not on expected lines,” party functionary Sivaraman, a close confidant of Elangovan, told reporters.

“He resigned owning moral responsibility for the electoral performance of the party,” he said.

Stating that the resignation was submitted in the office of the party chief in Delhi by Elangovan, he said the party high command, however, has not accepted his resignation so far.

“So far they haven’t accepted it. We are also not aware about when there will be a communication from them on the status of his resignation, “ he said.

Elangovan, who often found himself in the midst of controversies, began steering the party after former Union minister and now Tamil Maanila Congress chief G K Vasan quit the party, along with his supporters.

Gnanadesikan, then TNCC chief, quit the party to join Vasan.

Congress could win only eight seats out of the 41 seats it contested as part of the DMK alliance in the Assembly polls held last month.

DMK romped home in 89 seats ending up as a robust opposition party though it could not capture power.

Congress faced criticism that it was due to its “lesser than expected” performance that DMK could not return to power.