After election debacle, UP Congress chief Raj Babbar, 2 other state chiefs quit

Lucknow, May 24: Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar has reportedly taken 'moral responsibility' of the party's defeat in the state in the Lok Sabha elections and offered to resign from his post.

Demolishing the challenge posed by the SP-BSP alliance, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal(S) have won 62 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha seats. The counting of votes is still underway in the state.

The party's most remarkable victory came in Amethi. Union minister Smriti Irani defeated Congress president Rahul Gandhi from his party's bastion.

"The results are depressing for the Uttar Pradesh Congress. I find myself guilty of not discharging my responsibility in a proper manner... I will meet the leadership and apprise it of my views. Congratulations to the winners for winning the confidence of the people," Babbar tweeted.

In Lok Sabha election 2014, the NDA won 73 seats.

The opposition SP-BSP alliance bagged 14 seats, with nine going to Mayawati's BSP. The Congress just won one seat in UP- Rae Bareli, the stronghold of UPA chairperson and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

Accepting moral responsibility for Gandhi's defeat, the Congress' Amethi unit chief Yogendra Mishra, too, tendered his resignation.

Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik also resigned from his post, claiming moral responsibility for the dismal showing in the state. The Congress managed to win just nine assembly seats in the state while only one of its Lok Sabha candidates won in the state. In the 2014 polls for Odisha's 147-member assembly, 16 Congress candidates had won. The party had failed to get victory in any of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014.

HK Patil, who was tasked to oversee the Karnataka Congress campaign in December, has also quit.

The Congress chief, however, was yet to reject or accept any of the resignations.