Assam Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah on Sunday resigned as the chairman of the party’s media cell in the state.

The move comes a day after his wife Ranee Narah was denied a party ticket from the Lakhimpur parliamentary constituency.

Ranee, a former MP and a Union minister of state in UPA 2 lost the nomination race on Saturday to Uday Shankar Hazarika, who had joined the Congress in December from the ruling BJP.

Bharat Narah, a six-time MLA and former state minister, in his one-para resignation letter to PCC chief Bhupen Kumar Borah said he was resigning from his “position as the chairman of the media department ... effective immediately”. He also marked a copy of his resignation to the media department’s co-chairman Mehdi Alam Bora and vice-chairman Bedabrat Bora.

By afternoon, Narah flew to Delhi to “meet” the party leadership, a Congress insider said, adding Narah was “a bit upset” over his wife losing out to Hazarika but will “continue” to serve the party.

“Assam PCC president is in touch with him,” he said.

The Congress has faced a series of defections to the ruling BJP upsetting its electoral plans and Narah’s action has added to its embarrassment and headache before the elections where its rivals are leaving no opportunity to describe it as a spent force and that more leaders will join the ruling rank.

Narah’s action comes a few days after the resignation of sitting MP Abdul Khaleque from the party after being denied renomination from a “seat of his choice”. Khaleque, however, withdrew his resignation after the central leadership assured him to look into his grievances.

Party insiders said Ranee and her supporters had contended she was a “better bet” because she had defeated Hazarika thrice in the past.

Ranee, a former two-time Lok Sabha MP and one-time Rajya Sabha, had last won the Lakhimpur seat in 2009 and thereafter she was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2016-2022.

The Congress is contesting 13 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats.