"Our party's state unit chief submitted his resignation on June 15 itself as electoral results were not on expected lines," party functionary V R Sivaraman, a confidant of Elangovan, told reporters.
Congress, which contested 41 seats as part of the DMK-led alliance, could manage only eight of them.
Factionalism in the party surfaced in the backdrop of the resignation of Elangovan with aspirants lobbying for the top state unit post. It is not yet known whether Elangovan's resignation has been accepted or not.
"Its not so. Rahul only told him (Elangovan) that the party could have done better and our chief answered that he did his best and also indicated that he was not averse to the idea of the party being led by someone with better abilities in TN," he told PTI.
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Sivaraman said Elangovan quit owning moral responsbility for the party's performance. Elangovan had submitted his resignation in the office of party chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on June 15, a day after he called on Rahul Gandhi.
A loyalist of Chidambaram said "the choice of seats and the method of selecting them (for Assembly election) was incorrect. For example, constituencies where Congress had a winning chance were not demanded from DMK."
"Rahul Gandhi expressed his strong displeasure with the election outcome. Only then, Elangovan resigned. Also, Elangovan did not coordinate with other leaders for the poll campaign," he told PTI adding all such "inputs" had reached the office of "RG. (Rahul Gandhi)."
However, Elangovan's supporters dismissed the charges saying "all state leaders were taken onboard."
The seat-sharing talks was steered by Elangovan in the presence of party senior leaders including Mukul Wasnik.
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Elangovan, known for his rabble-rousing speech, had often landed himself in controversies some involving his own party leaders, which was also an indicator of factional feud.
For instance, when former union minister Jayanthi Natarajan quit the party last year, Elangovan had infamously said that it would be good if "the father and the son" too left.
Also, whenever he had removed or appointed new office-bearers, there had been voices of dissent and protests.
The recent removal of seven party functionaries too had cropped up at the meeting Elangovan had with Rahul Gandhi.
Elangovan told Gandhi that out of seven four were his supporters and "there is no question of arbitrary action against anyone," Sivaraman said.
On October 31, 2015, senior Congress leaders, including Chidambaram, K V Thangkabalu, and M Krishnaswamy, had called on Rahul Gandhi and apprised him about the alleged one-upmanship of Elangovan.
Former members of Parliament, Vallalperumal and K S Alagiri (Chidambaram supporters) were among those who had come out in the open expressing strong dissent against Elangovan.
Elangovan also had a running feud with the party women's wing leader S Vijayadharani and he had removed her as state mahila wing chief after a controversy in which police complaints were filed by both sides.
In a setback to him, she was, however, elevated as All India Mahila Congress General Secretary.