NewDelhi: Congress leader Raj Babbar on Wednesday resigned as the party chief in Uttar Pradesh after the performance of the party in the recent Lok Sabha by polls to Gorakhpur and Phulpur. Refraining to comment on his resignation, Babbar said that he will say whatever he has to when he speaks to party president Rahul Gandhi.
“New arrangements are being worked out in the Congress, whatever new positions will be given by Party President, we will take them up and work towards 2019,” Babbar said on Wednesday.
His resignation comes ahead of Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of his new team. He was authorised to nominate the Congress Working Committee (CWC) at the party’s plenary in Delhi last week. Several other top leaders are also expected to quit in the days to come.
Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki is also believed to have tendered his resignation to the central leadership of the party. Earlier on Monday, Goa Congress president Shantaram Naik too resigned from his post saying he was “inspired” by Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the party plenary about making way for younger leaders.
The resignations reaffirm the nervousness in the old guard of the party after Rahul formally took over as Congress chief. The senior leaders had been speaking of a possible generational shift and the proposed reforms in the organisational structure even before he took over as the party president.
As per the Congress Constitution, 12 of the 25 CWC members have to be elected by AICC delegates and the rest are appointed by the Congress president. The CWC has not witnessed any election in more than two decades now. The last time the CWC witnessed a contest was in 1997 during the Kolkata plenary and prior to that in 1992 at the Tirupati session.
Bureau Report
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