Ajay Maken resigns as Delhi Congress Chief after party's defeat

New Delhi: After facing massive defeat in Delhi Municipal Elections, Delhi Congress Chief Ajay Maken resigned from his post on Wednesday. Accepting the defeat, Maken addressed a press briefing and said, “Take responsibility for defeat and I am going to resign as Delhi Congress President”. Maken also declared that he would remain a member of the party but wouldn’t take any post in the party. “For 1 year I will not take up any post in the party, will work as a party worker” Maken said. Considering the party’s performance in the polls Maken said, “We have made a reasonable comeback, but I had hoped to do better in future”. Congress leader and former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit indirectly took a jibe at Maken and blamed "lack of involvement of local leadership for party's loss in the polls". Showing confidence in party’s preparation and performance in the civic polls, Congress had claimed to win over 200 seats in the polls. But, the results came as a shocker to the party as it was not able to bag more than 28 seats. Addressing a press conference ahead of the polls, Maken had claimed "As per an internal survey conducted with a sample size of 52,000 voters in 13,000 polling booths, Congress will win 208 wards among a total of 272 in three municipal corporations". Maken also hit out at BJP and AAP, accusing them of running a "negative" campaign instead of suggesting solutions to the problems faced by the people. However, Congress has come out with road maps on sanitation, primary health and education, financial self reliance of municipal bodies, with an aim to solve the problems once voted to power, he had said.