Despite poor show in MCD, Maken to stay Delhi Cong chief

NEW DELHI: Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asked the party’s Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken and the party’s in-charge for the state P C Chacko to “continue to do the work they are doing”, a day after the two resigned from their respective posts, accepting moral responsibility for the party’s poor showing in the MCD election.

Maken had met Gandhi on Thursday to submit his resignation.

“Maken is extremely close to Rahul Gandhi. Every step in the Municipal polls this year was taken after discussing it with Rahulji, and he refused to accept Maken’s resignation. As of now, Maken will continue to be the Delhi Congress Chief,” a senior Congress leader said.

If sources are to be believed, Gandhi is reportedly told the two leaders that Congress had bettered its performance since the last Delhi Assembly poll and that concerted efforts were needed to improve the tally.

“They have done a good job, if not a perfect one”, the Congress vice-president was quoted as having told them, adding in the same vein that they should have taken other party leaders along.

The two leaders will again meet Gandhi next week to chalk out a strategy for the party’s revival in Delhi, where it increased its vote share from nine percent in the last Assembly election to 21 percent in the civic poll.

A day after the Municipal election results were declared, the fault lines within Congress became deeper.

The party, which received a major thumbs down from the people of Delhi, seems to be in no mood to contact the veteran leaders who were not a part of campaigning this year.

The Bharatiya Janata Party had won 181 seats in the Municipal elections, Congress won 48, and the Aam Aadmi Party won 30.