Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora Quit In Congress Turmoil

Congress general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi, has resigned his post, continuing the spate of internal shake-up over the over the party's crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. His tweet announcing the resignation came barely hours after the party's Mumbai unit chief Milind Deora stepped down following a meeting with Rahul Gandhi, who has also quit as the Congress chief.

"Accepting the people's verdict and taking accountability, I had submitted my resignation as General Secretary of AICC (All India Congress Committee) to Shri Rahul Gandhi," Mr Scindia tweeted. "I thank him for entrusting me with this responsibility and for giving me the opportunity to serve our party," he added.

He, however, told reporters later that he had resigned earlier. "I haven't resigned today. I had submitted my resignation to Congress president Rahul Gandhi 8-10 days ago," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

"I am not a leader who gives orders to others. I think when there is a responsibility, there comes accountability as well. Even I am responsible if performance isn't good and therefore, I took the decision to resign," he added.

Before the national elections, Mr Gandhi had appointed Mr Scindia and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as in-charges for Uttar Pradesh to revive the party in the state that sends the maximum number of lawmakers to parliament.

The Congress, however, could win only one seat, with BJP winning 62 out of 80 seats in the state. In an embarrassment to the Congress, Mr Gandhi also lost from his family stronghold Amethi.

Overall, the Congress won only 52 of 543 Lok Sabha seats. Mr Scindia, a four-time parliamentarian from Guna in Madhya Pradesh, also lost his time-tested constituency to BJP's Dr KP Yadav.

Taking responsibility for the loss, Rahul Gandhi had quit as party president on May 25. A spate of resignations by local leaders followed when it became clear that he was not about to revise his decision. Still, few of the party's key leaders followed his lead.

Earlier this week, Mr Gandhi shared an open letter on Twitter, listing his reasons to quit from the top post. He also edited his Twitter bio, removing the party designation.

"Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019," he wrote, adding that it would be "unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as president of the party," his letter read.

Mr Gandhi had also written in the letter that he would take no part in the selection of his successor.

It is not clear if Mr Gandhi's resignation letter has been accepted by the party. On Saturday, senior leaders met in Delhi, but the party said there was no discussion on who would be the next Congress chief.

With inputs from ANI