Odisha Congress Campaign Committee Head Bhakta Charan Das Steps Down After Poll Defeat

Bhakta Charan Das resigned as Congress campaign committee head in Odisha after the assembly polls saying he took moral responsibility of the party's loss.

Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Bhakta Charan Das resigned from the post of Chairman of Odisha Congress Campaign Committee after party's defeat in the Assembly polls. The grand old party won 14 of the 147 seats in the Odisha Assembly polls while in managed to get just one of the 21 in the Lok Sabha polls. 

Das said he was taking moral responsibility for the party's failure to get expected number of seats both in the Assembly and Parliamentary elections in the state, reported Times of India. 

In his resignation letter addressed to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Das, said, "I worked hard to contribute my best, but unfortunately we failed to come up to the expectations. We really appreciate the kind support and cooperation received from the Honourable Congress President, Former President Shri Rahul Gandhi ji and other senior leaders of AICC during the election".

"I take the moral responsibility of failure to get expected number of seats both in Assembly and Parliament election in Odisha," he added. 

He also said that a detailed report on party's performance in the polls will be furnished subsequently for the high-command's 'persual'. 

The Congress party showed modest improvement in the assembly polls increasing its tally from 9 in 2014 to 14 this year. In the Lok Sabha elections, the party managed to retain only the Koraput seat that it had won in 2019. 

Das said that their campaign strategy should have been "more aggressive". 

“We failed to launch massive campaigns this time. We managed to arrange only two election rallies of Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge. Our campaign strategy should have been more aggressive. As chairman of the campaign committee, the onus of failure lies on me and my post,” Das told TOI.