Cong's Haryana in-charge offers to quit over poll debacle

Congress' Haryana in-charge Deepak Babaria on Monday said he has offered to resign from his post, taking moral responsibility for the assembly polls defeat.

Babaria said he offered his resignation to the high command soon after the result of the Haryana assembly polls came out last week but no decision has been communicated to him over the matter.

"Last week, after the results, I offered to resign. I offered to the high command that you can replace me. My health is not well and also it is my moral responsibility in the wake of the results. Keeping that in mind, I had told this to the high command that 'if you deem fit, you can replace me'," Babaria told PTI.

"After the Lok Sabha polls also, I had offered to resign as in-charge of Delhi, but no decision has been taken on that. Similarly, no decision has been taken (for Haryana), but it was my responsibility to offer (to resign)," he said.

The Congress top brass last Thursday held a review meeting on the party's shock defeat in Haryana assembly polls and decided to form a fact-finding team that will speak to all its candidates to find out the reasons for the debacle.

Sources said the leaders during the meeting discussed the possible reasons for the "unexpected" results in Haryana and decided to set up the team to ascertain the reasons behind such results and also look into complaints of "discrepancies" in EVMs, as alleged by party candidates.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, AICC senior observers for the polls Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, as well as AICC secretaries for the state, participated in the review meeting. AICC in-charge of Haryana Babaria joined the meeting online.

The Congress has also demanded a thorough probe into "discrepancies" found in some Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the counting of votes of the Haryana polls and demanded that such EVMs should be sealed and secured pending the inquiry.

A delegation of top Congress leaders comprising former chief ministers Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ashok Gehlot and AICC leaders K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken and Pawan Khera, besides Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan, met with top Election Commission officials here on Wednesday.

The Congress leaders alleged that there are at least 20 such complaints with many referring to EVMs functioning at 99 per cent battery capacity whereas the average EVMs were found to be operating at 60 to 70 per cent battery capacity during the counting.

The Congress appeared confident of dislodging the BJP dispensation which was in power for 10 years and facing anti-incumbency.

However, the BJP with 48 seats halted the Congress' comeback attempt and also proved several exit polls wrong which had predicted a comfortable win for the grand old party in Haryana.

The Congress managed to muster 37 seats in the 90-member assembly.