"I pray that the Congress expels me in light of this accusation," Harish Rawat said.
Congress poll campaign head for Uttarakhand Harish Rawat today requested his party to expel him over accusations of the former Chief Minister selling party tickets during assembly elections and offering posts in the upcoming government for money. Without naming who has made these accusations, Mr Rawat said they are people who hold important posts in the party.
"Accusations of selling tickets and posts are very serious and if those are being made on a person who has been a Chief Minister, regional party chief, General Secretary of the party and also a member of the Congress Working Committee," he said in a tweet in Hindi.
Mr Rawat, who lost the recently concluded assembly elections from the Lalkuwa seat in Uttarakhand, made a reference to those who have made these accusations. Those making these allegations are also at important posts in the party, he said and added that it's being spread by supporters of a person on a "very important post".
"I pray that the Congress expels me in light of this accusation," he said.
Referring to the Hindu festival Holi, he said it's an apt occasion to get rid of evil and "evil like Harish Rawat" should also be burned during Holika Dahan.
Holika Dahan is a ritual that precedes Holi celebrations where a pyre is lit signifying the victory of good over evil.
The Congress, which fought under the leadership of Mr Rawat in the hill state, won just 19 seats against BJP's 47 out of a total of 70 assembly seats, with political observers attributing the loss to factionalism in the opposition party besides other factors.
Mr Rawat had on Sunday expressed anguish and an acute sense of embarrassment over his failure to guide the party to victory in the state assembly election, saying he could not rise to the expectations of the party leadership that had reposed its trust in him.
In a Facebook post hours before he left for Delhi to attend a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, Mr Rawat said he did not know how he would face party chief Sonia Gandhi.
''How much trust she had in me. All the top leaders of Congress had so much trust in me. All of them expected me to bring the Congress back to power. There must have been some shortcoming on my part because of which I could not meet their expectations," the 73-year-old former Chief Minister had said.