Gujarat opposition leader offers to quit over Cong poll rout

In the wake of stunning defeat of the Congress in Gujarat, its senior legislator and Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani has offered to resign from his post taking moral responsibility for the rout.

Dhanani joins various Congress leaders across the country who have either resigned or offered to quit from their respective post after the Rahul Gandhi-led party's humiliating defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress could not open its account in Gujarat, where the ruling BJP won all the 26 Lok Sabha seats at stake.

In 2014 too, the opposition party had failed to win any seat in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 

"Our Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani has offered to resign, taking moral responsibility of the defeat, before state Congress in-charge Rajiv Satav," party sources said Tuesday.

Dhanani had himself contested from the Amreli Lok Sabha seat, where he lost by a margin of over two lakh votes to BJP candidate Naran Kachhadiya.

Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi confirmed that Dhanani has offered to resign, but said no decision has been taken by the party high command regarding his offer.

Dhanani, a prominent Patel leader, had won the Amreli assembly seat in 2017.

The Congress is faced with a spate of resignations following the poll debacle.

Even party president Rahul Gandhi announced his resignation from the post a few days ago, but it was rejected by the Congress Working Committee (CWC), its highest decision- making body.

The Congress had performed well in the 2017 elections in Gujarat, restricting the BJP to just 99 seats out of the total 182, and increasing its tally to 77 from 58 in 2012.

However, the party failed to replicate its assembly election success in the Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, in Vadodara, a group of Congress leaders and workers held a demonstration demanding that Gandhi continue to provide leadership to the party.

Rutvij Joshi, a state Congress spokesman, called upon Gandhi to lead the party in its ideological battle and to champion the cause of the youth, farmers, minorities, the poor and deprived sections.