Sensing Congress defeat in the by-elections, the former chief minister Kamal Nath was the first to leave the PCC office for home on Tuesday afternoon. After an hour, party senior leader Digvijaya Singh and other leaders followed suit. PCC chief and other party leaders were keenly monitoring the party status at the PCC office, but as soon as the Congress headed towards defeat, they left.
Soon after the party leaders, all the workers who had gathered at the party office since the morning started to leave one by one.
The Congress party was confident of winning all the 28 assembly seats and returning to power in the State, however the initial trend dipped all their hopes. Certain to form the government, former CM Nath was heard saying more than once that Congress will celebrate Diwali on November 10, however, to their bad luck something else was in store.
Nath before heading to PCC office went to a temple and performed pooja. He reached the control room of the party office at 9.45 and was joined by ex-CM Digvijaya Singh, Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha, MLA Kantilal Bhuria and other senior party leaders.
As the counting of votes started accelerating, the party leaders kept a close watch on every activity in the 28 Assembly constituencies where counting was being done. But as soon as the Congress headed towards defeat, they left one by one, Nath was first to leave.
The party office wore a deserted look as party functionaries and workers too left for the day.
