Several Congress leaders resign as leadership crisis intensifies

New Delhi, June 28: After a drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Friday faces a leadership crisis with party chief Rahul Gandhi firm on stepping down from the post.

The Congress was able to win only 52 Lok Sabha seats, even failing to claim the Leader of Opposition post.

On Friday, a number of leaders from several state units tendered their resignation, citing "collective responsibility".

Here is the list of resigning members:
Deepak Babria (Congress General Secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh)
Sumitra Chouhan (Haryana Pradesh Mahila Congress)
Rajesh Lilothia (Working President of Delhi Pradesh Congress)
Ponnam Prabhakar Goud (Working President of Telangana Pradesh Congress)
Virender Rathore (AICC Secretary)
Anil Choudhury (AICC Secretary)
Rajesh Dharmani (AICC Secretary)
Virender Vashist (Foreign Cell Secretary)
Girish Chondakar (Goa Congress president)

The spate of resignations came a day after senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha stepped down from the post of chairperson of the All India Congress Committee's legal human rights and RTI department.

Earlier in the day, a number of Congress leaders assembled at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office at 24, Akbar Road in New Delhi on Friday to hold an impromptu meeting on the state of affairs of the Congress. More than 300 people had gathered for the impromptu meeting. Surprisingly, the Congress leadership was unaware of such development.