Bengaluru: In what appears to be a fight between the old guard and the new guard of the Congress party, as many as 145 office-bearers of the party have resigned, owing to the humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha poll 2019.

The list also includes four AICC secretaries – Anil Chaudhary, Rajesh Dharmani, Virendra Rathore and Pawan Prabhakar and two working presidents who had been inducted by Rahul Gandhi himself. Apart from them, the general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Deepak Babaria and Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar, legal cell head and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha also quit.

The spate of resignations comes in the wake of the Congress winning only 52 seats in the Lok Sabha poll. Not just that, even Rahul Gandhi, stumped by the low scoring in the polls, has put in his papers. Irrespective of the pleas to soldier on, he is reluctant to continue.

Congress had done a lot better in the assembly polls of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and even Chhattisgarh, considered the Hindi heartland, held last time in December 2018.

Many in the party feel that the top guns or the senior leaders in the party should have taken more responsibility. In fact, at this point, it is highly pertinent to note that Rahul Gandhi had even felt let down when he blamed elders in the party (Chidambaram and others) during his offer to step down.

Shivanand, a political analyst says, “These people who have resigned have rebelled against the old guard. It should be taken in the right earnest. If youngsters come, fresh blood would be induced. There is certainly some hope. The old guard doesn’t have the verve to challenge the BJP. Modi and Shah have decimated the Congress. The old guard doesn’t have the charisma to take them on.”