More Congress leaders put in their papers

Resignations in the Congress intended to convince Rahul Gandhi to stay on as party president continued on Saturday with senior leader PL Punia, a Rajya Sabha MP and Chhattisgarh in-charge, stepping down. All India Kisan Congress chairman Nana Patole as well as AICC in-charge Sudhanshu Tripathi and Tarun Kumar put in their papers too.

Several leaders who have resigned called on party general secretary KC Venugopal on Saturday, asking him to convey their pleas to Gandhi. Venugopal is one of the few leaders Gandhi has interacted with since he announced at the Congress Working Committee meeting on May 25 that he was stepping down. Venugopal has been signing AICC communications on Gandhi’s behalf.

“It is a personal decision for office-bearers to quit, and in my capacity, I will convey to the party president their decisions and their appeal for him to stay,” Venugopal said.

Patole, who dissolved the Kisan Congress, the party’s farmer wing, said his resignation was in support of Gandhi. “He gave prominence to farmers’ issues and in the manifesto, the Congress was the sole political party to suggest a farmers’ budget...,” said Patole.

On Friday, the party faced more than 100 resignations from several office-bearers, including that of general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Deepak Babaria, Goa PCC president Girish Chodhankar, Telangana working president Ponnam Prabhakar, Delhi working president Rajesh Lilothia, and Indian Youth Congress vice president BV Srinivas.

First Published: Jun 29, 2019 23:01 IST