Congress leader Harish Rawat prays for his expulsion from Congress party

Dehradun, Mar 15: Upset with the allegations of selling party tickets in the recently-concluded Uttarakhand polls, senior Congress leader Harish Rawat on Tuesday sought his own expulsion from the party.

After Uttarakhand Congress working president Ranjeet Rawat accused him of selling tickets for the assembly elections, Rawat said the accusation became all the more serious because of the stature of the person making it and the one against whom it has been made.

"The charges are serious. They become more serious considering the fact that the person against whom they have been levelled was chief minister, PCC president and AICC general secretary. Even the person levelling the allegations occupies a responsible position in the party. The charges have been levelled against me. I pray that I should be expelled from the party in the light of these charges," Rawat said in a Facebook post.

Ranjeet Rawat, who was once a close associate of Harish Rawat, on Monday accused Rawat of selling party tickets to aspirants. Both Ranjeet Rawat and Harish Rawat were defeated from their respective seats of Salt and Lalkuwa. Harish Rawat was shifted from Ramnagar to Lalkuwa seat days ahead of the February 14 assembly polls following a protest by Ranjit Rawat and his supporters.

Ranjeet Rawat, who was himself keen on contesting from Ramnagar, also failed to secure nomination from there. He contested from Salt and lost. Under attack after the Congress's drubbing, Harish Rawat had owned responsibility for the loss. "All of us thought that we were winning in Uttarakhand. being the chairman of the Campaign Committee, I take responsibility for the defeat. I apologised to every member and leadership in the working committee, I have also apologised to the public before," Rawat had said.

In the polls, the BJP emerged victorious by winning 47 seats in the 70-member assembly despite Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami losing to the Congress's Bhuwan Kapri from Khatima constituency.