Congress in crisis; Maharashtra, Assam ministers quit, flay CMs

New Delhi: In a double blow to the Indian National Congress, Narayan Rane from Maharashtra and Himanta Biswa Sarma from Assam resigned from the respective state Cabinets on Monday. The resignations come in the backdrop of Congress's severe mauling in the recent Lok Sabha elections where the party won just 44 seats.

Both Rane and Sarma have pointed fingers at their state party leaderships and chief ministers for the poor show by Congress. They have blamed the chief ministers of turning a blind eye towards the aggressive campaigning by the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the poor track record of the state governments which according to them resulted in the drubbing.

Rane's resignation is a huge setback to the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance as Maharashtra will elect a new Assembly in a few months with a charged up BJP-Shiv Sena alliance confident of regaining power in the state.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is yet to accept his resignation. Rane had announced his decision to quit the Chavan cabinet pitching for a change of leadership there.

Rane addressed a meeting in Kankavali in the state on July 19 and trained his guns on the Chief Minister and said that Assembly elections results would not be different from the Lok Sabha polls if they were fought under the present leadership.

It is believed that Rane decided to quit from the Chavan ministry to protest against the failure of the Congress high command to remove Chavan in the wake of the humiliating defeat of Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

Assam Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma resigned even after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi extended his support to the beleagured Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and asked him to keep the rebel MLAs, who want him removed, under control.

But a defiant Sarma called it quits and later said, "I have given my resignation to Governor and will send my resignation to Chief Minister as well. We are going to play the role of a constructive opposition. There is no question of defying Sonia Gandhi's decision. I will not come back in the ministry under Gogoi."

Sarma is leading a campaign against Gogoi and had been putting pressure on the high command to ask Gogoi to step down as the chief minister after Congress's debacle in Assam.