Resignations pile up for Congress

Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar has offered to resign from his post, three days after losing the Lok Sabha election from Punjab's Gurdaspur constituency. Though Congress won eight out of Punjab's 13 seats, Jakhar lost to newly-minted BJP leader Sunny Deol by a margin of 82,459 votes.

The defeat brought curtains on his brief stint as Gurdaspur MP. The parliamentary seat had been won by late Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna for the BJP in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014. In 2017, his demise necessitated the bypoll, which Jakhar had won.

Jakhar's resignation is the latest body blow for the Congress, which has been hit by a spate of exits following the electoral debacle, where it won only 52 seats against the BJP's 303. Before Punjab, the state unit presidents of Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh had also offered to resign. In addition, party national president Rahul Gandhi also said he wants to step down, although his resignation wasn't accepted by the party's central working committee.

"Everyone supported me fully and put in their best for me, but I was unable to defend my seat. In such a scenario, I cannot continue as state chief. I feet a moral responsibility to quit," the 65-year-old Jakhar had reportedly written in his letter.

Also on Monday, the Jharkhand Congress chief, former MP Dr Ajoy Kumar, also offered to resign after the party won just the one seat in the state. In addition, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan resigned after losing from Nanded to BJP's Prataprao Govindrao Chikhalikar, while the party's Uttar Pradesh chief, Raj Babbar, had also offered to step down, saying, "The results are depressing for the Uttar Pradesh Congress. I find myself guilty of not discharging my responsibility in a proper manner."

—With inputs from agencies

Series Of Setbacks

• Congress president Rahul Gandhi offered to step down following the Lok Sabha debacle.
• State chiefs of 6 states have followed suit: Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra
• The party suffered setbacks even in states it won just six months ago