Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot submitted his resignation to Governor Kalraj Mishra on Sunday evening after the Congress party’s defeat in the Assembly elections.
“Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot reached Raj Bhavan on Sunday and submitted his resignation from the post of Chief Minister to Governor Kalraj Mishra," said a statement from the governor's office.
Mishra accepted the resignation with immediate effect and urged Gehlot to continue working until the formation of the new government in the state, it said.
As per the latest trends, the opposition BJP has already crossed the halfmay mark, winning 106 out of the 199 seats in the state. The Congress won 60 and is ahead in another nine seats.
Rajasthan went to the polls on 199 of 200 assembly seats on November 25. In the Karanpur constituency, elections were postponed due to the passing away of Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Koonar.
Earlier, giving his first reaction to the party’s setback in the elections, Gehlot said the results were "unexpected for everyone".
"We humbly accept the mandate given by the people of Rajasthan. This is an unexpected result for everyone. This defeat shows that we were not completely successful in taking our plans, laws and innovations to the public,” he wrote on X.
Later, talking to reporters in Jaipur, the Congress veteran rejected suggestions that bringing forward "new faces" would have helped the party retain power.
"There was talk of bringing new faces, and new faces should come, but this demand was not there in MP and Chhattisgarh and still we lost the election. It would be wrong to say that we would have won the election if new faces were brought," he said.
The infighting is believed to have cost the Congress dearly in Rajasthan. Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot had been at loggerheads for a large part of the last five years. The central leadership intervened and managed to get the two leaders to put their differences on the backburner in the run-up to the elections.
But it is felt that the perception of the Congress being a divided house had already percolated down to the people and the party high command's intervention came a little too late in the day, reported Soni Mishra.
Gehlot said he would continue to work for the people whether he remains in any position or not and that he would continue to work for the people of the state till his last breath.
"I wish the new government all the best. My advice to them is that despite working hard, we were not successful, it does not mean that they should not work after forming the government," said the outgoing chief minister.
