New Delhi: Dissidence in Haryana Congress on Monday came to the fore with senior Congress leader Kumari Selja firing a fresh salvo at Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, saying he should have offered to resign owing moral responsibility for the party`s debacle in Haryana.
The Dalit leader, who shares good rapport with Nehru-Gandhi family, is a known detractor of Hooda and has attacked him umpteen times in past as well.
"He should have done this (offered to resign) so that people feel that somewhere the responsibility is accepted. But as things go on right now, it seems the state had no responsibility. The entire blame is being put either on the central government or other leaders of Congress," Selja said.
She was replying to a question on whether Hooda should have offered to resign owning responsibility as Congress could win only one of the ten Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, where he was Chief Minister for ten years.
Maintaining that Lok Sabha election results in Haryana were a "great disappointment" for workers as it came in a state which was said to be number one in performance, the former Union Minister rued that the Chief Minister "never made any offer (to resign)."
"Something of this sort should have happened. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has done this (offered to resign). Till date, I have not come across a word (from him) that there may have been mistakes. After all, the state government must be taking some responsibility," Selja, a Rajya Sabha MP, said.
Maintaining that all Congress leaders in the state were responsible and had "failed miserably", she insisted that the "main responsibility lies with the Chief Minister because he was the helm of the affairs twice. He was nominated Chief Minister in Haryana and it was his bounden duty to carry everyone along."
At the outset, she said there may be "various reasons" for such a result.
