Headlines
Maken, Chacko quit after Congress debacle in Delhi
New Delhi, Feb 10
Congress' chief ministerial
aspirant Ajay Maken Tuesday quit as the party's general secretary after
he lost from Sadar Bazar while his party suffered a rout in the Delhi
assembly elections.
In a subsequent move, the Delhi in-charge P.C. Chacko also stepped down from office.
"Yes,
both the leaders (Maken and Chacko) have resigned. Maken's resignation
is subject to approval from the party high command (party president
Sonia Gandhi).
"Chacko's resignation is a mere formality as his
term was supposed to end after the Delhi polls," party official Tom
Vadakkan told IANS.
Maken, who was relegated to the third
position with 16,331 votes Tuesday, was up against incumbent Som Dutt
Sharma of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Praveen Jain of the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) in a constituency that was a Congress bastion for
three consecutive terms until Rajesh Jain lost it to the AAP in the 2013
polls.
Sharma reclaimed Sadar Bazar, the largest wholesale market in the national capital, with 67,507 votes.
"I take responsibility for the results and have decided to resign as general secretary of the Congress," Maken said.
Gandhi appointed Chacko as the party in-charge of Delhi in November last year.
He
was filling in for party general secretary Shakeel Ahmad, who had
requested the party president to temporarily discharge him of his duties
for three months citing personal reasons.
Maken congratulated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal.
He
said: "We want to congratulate Kejriwal and hope the promises he has
made and the dreams he has outlined, he will fulfil them in Delhi. For
strengthening of democracy, I hope that he will fulfil his promises."
In
his mainstream political career that spans over 21 years, Maken, 64,
has won three elections to the Delhi assembly and two to parliament.
Beginning
his political journey as president of the Delhi University Student's
Union in 1985, he became the youngest member of the Delhi assembly in
1993 at the age of 29. In 2001, he was transport, power and tourism
minister in the Sheila Dikshit cabinet.
In 2003, he was elected as speaker of the assembly.
He first became an MP in 2004, and was re-elected in 2009 during which he had thrice been in the union council of ministers.