Congress’ Haryana in-charge Deepak Babaria on Monday said he has offered to resign from his post, taking moral responsibility for the party’s dismal performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections in the state.

The announcement comes after the party held several meetings to discuss the party’s performance in the election and the reason behind the disappointing defeat.

“Last week, after the results, I offered to resign. I offered to the high command that you can replace me. My health is not well and also it is my moral responsibility in the wake of the results. Keeping that in mind, I had told this to the high command that ‘if you deem fit, you can replace me’,” Babaria told PTI.

“After the Lok Sabha polls also, I had offered to resign as in-charge of Delhi, but no decision has been taken on that. Similarly, no decision has been taken (for Haryana), but it was my responsibility to offer (to resign),” he said.

Last Thursday, the Congress top brass held a review meeting on the party’s shock defeat in the Haryana Assembly polls and decided to form a fact-finding team that would speak to all its candidates to find out the reasons for the debacle.

Sources said the leaders discussed the possible reasons for the “unexpected” results in Haryana during the meeting and decided to set up a team to ascertain the reasons behind such results and also investigate complaints of “discrepancies” in EVMs, as alleged by party candidates.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, AICC senior observers for the polls Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, and AICC secretaries for the state participated in the review meeting. AICC, in charge of Haryana Babaria, joined the meeting online.

Congress has also demanded a thorough probe into “discrepancies” found in some electronic voting machines (EVMs) during the vote in the Haryana polls and that such EVMs be sealed and secured pending the inquiry.

A delegation of top Congress leaders, comprising former chief ministers Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ashok Gehlot and AICC leaders K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, and Pawan Khera, as well as Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan, met with top Election Commission officials on Wednesday.

The Congress leaders alleged that there are at least 20 such complaints, many referring to EVMs functioning at 99 per cent battery capacity. In contrast, the average EVM was found to be operating at 60 to 70 per cent battery capacity during the counting.

The Congress appeared confident of dislodging the BJP dispensation, which had been in power for ten years and was facing anti-incumbency.

However, the BJP, with 48 seats, halted the Congress’ comeback attempt and proved several exit polls wrong, which had predicted a comfortable win for the grand old party in Haryana. The Congress managed to muster 37 seats in the 90-member assembly.

The BJP expelled eight leaders on Sunday evening after they opted to contest the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections as independent candidates. The list includes former minister Ranjit Chautala and former MLA Devendra Kadyan. The development also comes mere days after the Haryana Congress took a similar decision for 21 leaders.  

Several ticket hopefuls from both parties have jumped into the electoral fray in recent days after being denied a chance to contest the polls. Both the BJP and Congress have since managed to convince some of these ‘rebel’ candidates to withdraw their nominations while others continue to running spirited campaigns in the hope of emerging as independent kingmakers. 

Other prominent rebels who could cause trouble for the BJP include Deepak Dagar from Prithla, Jasbir Deswal from Safidon and Kalyan Chauhan from Sohna.

The announcement also came hours after senior BJP leaders JP Nadda and Amit Shah led rallies in the northern state on Sunday. The Home Minister has addressed the issue of some rebels contesting as independents during several recent rallies and urged voters to only cast their ballots for the “lotus” symbol.

Haryana is slated to vote on October 5 with votes being counted a few days later on October 8. The previous election had seen BJP emerge as the single largest party with 40 seats while the Congress won 30 seats in the 90-member state legislative assembly. 

The Opposition Congress also faces a similar dilemma with another nine ‘rebel’ leaders contesting the upcoming polls against chosen candidates. 

State chief Udai Bhan wrote to senior party leaders on Sunday seeking stern action against the group for indulging in “anti-party activities”. The letter recommended the expulsion of Sharda Rathore, Rohita Revri, Satbir Bhana, Rajkumar Valmiki, Kapoor Narwal, Virender Gogdia, Harsh Kumar, Lalit Nagar and Satbir Ratera. 

(With inputs from agencies)