After poll debacle, Raj Babbar offers to resign from UP Congress chief's post

Senior Congress leader Raj Babbar on Wednesday offered to step down as Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president after the party's poor performance in the state assembly election results.

The development comes a day after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi expressed the need for organisational and structural changes.

The Congress party, which contested the polls in alliance with Samajwadi Party could manage to win only 7 seat, while the SP won 47 seats.

After the party's poll drubbing in Uttar Pradesh, the clamour for 'structural changes' in the Congress has grown louder, with senior leaders demanding 'major surgery'.

The Congress leader had said BJP's win in Uttar Pradesh was largely due to polarisation.

"I would like to say that the BJP won the election in UP and I would like to congratulate them. Why they won it, there are multiple reasons. Large part of it is polarisation. But the fact is that they won the election," Rahul Gandhi had said. Stating that there are "ups and down" for every party, he stressed, "We had a little down in UP which is fine, we accept it. But we have a ideological fight with the BJP and we will continue to do that."