New Delhi: Bowing to persuasion from the party high command, former union minister and five-time Lok Sabha member from Mumbai Gurudas Kamat on Thursday said he is withdrawing his resignation from the Congress party.
In a statement, Kamat said he would “continue to serve under the leadership of honourable Congress President Sonia Gandhi and honourable Vice President Rahul Gandhi”.
Kamat resigned on June 6, but the party high command did not accept his resignation and senior party leaders tried to persuade him to withdraw the resignation and continue to work in the party.
“I had about two weeks ago sent my resignation as general secretary of All India Congress Committee and from the Congress party purely for personal reasons, to concentrate on social service minus any party tag,” Kamat said in a statement on Thursday.
“However, during the last fortnight a large number of senior party leaders tried to convince me to rethink on the decision. My meeting with my party president, Sonia Gandhi, helped me to make up my mind that the Congress party is the best platform to serve the people of this country,” he added.
A senior party leader, who spoke to IANS on condition of anonymity, had said that Kamat was unhappy over the way some issues had been handled by Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam and party general secretary Mohan Prakash, who is in charge of the Congress affairs in Maharashtra.
A former Mumbai Congress president for two terms, Kamat, 61, has deep knowledge of the city politics and his absence could have proved detrimental for the party which is hoping to capture the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in next year’s critical elections.
“I will continue to serve under the leadership of honourbale Congress President Sonia Gandhi and honourbale Vice President Rahul Gandhi with the same charge of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu as informed to me late last night,” Kamat said.
The Congress has seen some of its senior leaders quitting the party over the past year, following a series of electoral setbacks the party suffered after its debacle in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Senior Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi quit the pasty and on announced that he was forming his own party in the state.
Former Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who left the Congress, was seen to be instrumental in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s impressive victory in the Assam assembly polls.
Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, who was involved in a revolt against his successor Harish Rawat, also left the Congress to join the BJP.
–IANS