Senior Congress leader Ajay Singh Yadav quits party

Gurugram:In a fresh setback to Congress in Haryana, after a stunning loss in the recently-concluded assembly election, senior party leader and national president of the OBC department of the Congress, Captain (retd) Ajay Singh Yadav quit the party on Friday, citing that he was treated shabbily by the leadership and that there was rampant mismanagement during the state assembly polls which led to the Congress defeat.

Singh, who resigned from the primary membership of the party and from the organisational post on Thursday, said that he was waiting for the party to accept his resignation after which he will explain the reasons for his resignation. He also said that after the exit of Sonia Gandhi as party president, certain leaders had tried to cut his political stature in Haryana in the last two years.

“I was treated shabbily by the party high command and there are multiple reasons which forced me to resign from the Congress despite having a relationship of 70 years. I have sent my resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge ji. I have resigned from the post of chairman, AICC, OBC department and also from the primary membership of the Congress party,” he told HT on Friday.

Singh is a senior Congress leader from south Haryana and he is a six-time MLA from the Rewari seat. He was also the state finance minister and state power minister in the previous Congress governments in Haryana. He has been critical of the Congress leadership, particularly the state leaders after the party lost the recent assembly elections in Haryana. His son, Chiranjeev Rao, the sitting Congress MLA also lost the election from Rewari, earlier this month.

“The decision to resign was hard as my family has 70 years of association with the party. My father late Rao Abhey Singh became MLA in 1952 and thereafter I continued with the family tradition but am disillusioned with the party high command,” Singh said.