From Rajasthan to Karnataka: Congress on the edge post poll debacle

New Delhi, May 28: The grand old party seems to be in a total disarray post debacle in Lok Sabha elections and the Congress' top leadership will have to do a lot to keep the flock together. The voices of discontent leaders making open remarks about state leadership and demanding that accountability for the loss be fixed is something the party will have to deal with carefully.

Whether Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh or Karnataka, the Congress is on the edge and it is now for the veterans to stock of the situation and address concerns raised by the leaders.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has offered resignation over party's election performance and the CWC does not want him to step down. He appears to be adamant and seniors leaders head for his residence to convince him. Rahul at the CWC meet had reportedly blamed some leaders for putting their sons above the party. He reportedly expressed unhappiness at Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot spending a week in Jodhpur to campaign for his son and neglecting the state.

Crisis in Rajasthan:

Now, many reports claim that some leaders are saying that Sachin Pilot should have been made chief minister instead of Ashok Gehlot.

The Congress in Rajasthan has called for a state executive meeting on Wednesday in which a resolution requesting Congress president Rahul Gandhi to withdraw his resignation is likely to be adopted.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, less than six months after the Congress wrested power from BJP in state.

Rajasthan BJP leaders are reportedly saying that several ruling party MLAs were 'unhappy' and the government 'might fall'.

The unrest in the party started after the May 23 Lok Sabha results in which PM Modi-led NDA stormed to power bagging 352 of the 542 LoK Sabha seats. For Congress it was a double blow as the party failed to cash in on the recent assembly wins in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh drawing a zero out of 25 in first and just one out of 29 in the second state. The development led to speculations of BSP withdrawing support to the government.

Crisis in Karnataka Congress:

In Karnataka, amid reports of a rift between ruling coalition partners Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka, Congress general secretary in-charge of the state K C Venugopal is rushing to Bengaluru to sort things out.

A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Karnataka has been convened, which will take stock of the ongoing political developments in the southern state, triggering speculation about the future of its coalition government, a PTI report said..

Top Karnataka Congress leaders will take stock of the situation in the state and seek to unite all partymen to ensure that there is no threat to the coalition government. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was also supposed to attend the meeting, but he cancelled his Bengaluru visit in view of the situation prevailing within the party after its president Rahul Gandhi offered to resign. Voices of dissent are gaining ground within the Congress in Karnataka as two of its MLAs met former chief minister S M Krishna at his Bengaluru residence on Sunday.

The coalition government in the southern state has been fragile since its inception with reports of its collapse surfacing every then and now. Following the drubbing of the Congress-JD(S) combine in the just-concluded Lok Sabha election, where the two parties managed to win only one seat each in Karnataka, a senior Congress leader has claimed that the state government will collapse after June 10.

The BJP, with 105 MLAs, is the single-largest party in the 225-member Karnataka Assembly. The ruling coalition has 117 members -- 79 of the Congress, 37 of the JD(S) and one of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

OneIndia News with PTI inputs