Rahul Gandhi firm on quitting party; Congress may take call

A CWC member said that an honest postmortem is the need of the hour

Rahul Gandhi firm on quitting party; Congress may take call

Rahul Gandhi. Pic/PTI

Two days after his resignation offer, Congress President Rahul Gandhi is said to be sticking to his decision and is keen that a new person could be chosen for the post to guide it in the challenging times ahead.

Gandhi had offered to step down from his post at the CWC meeting on Saturday taking moral responsibility for the dismal performance in the polls. But it was unanimously rejected by the CWC.

In the midst of the disquiet, several state Congress chiefs, including Punjab's Sunil Jakhar, Jharkhand's Ajoy Kumar and Assam's Ripun Bora, also offered to resign following the party's drubbing in the elections, party insiders said.

Speculation was rife about impending changes in the party that is facing a crisis after its poor performance at the hustings. Some state leaders have also offered to resign. The Congress won only 52 out of 542 parliamentary seats in the Lok Sabha polls, just six more than its 2014 tally. The party could not open its account in 18 states and union territories.

Sources said that despite senior leaders making serious attempts to convince him to rethink on his decision, Gandhi is said to be unfazed.

Earlier in the day, he offered tributes to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru at Shanti Van on the occasion of his death anniversary. When some Congress leaders urged him there to continue as the president, he just smiled and went away.

Party Treasurer Ahmed Patel and Organisational General Secretary K C Venugopal met with Gandhi at his residence here and urged him to continue to lead the party.

Party leaders, sources said, maintained that Congress cannot afford to have a new leader at the helm for rebuilding the organisation at this juncture and that the responsibility for the defeat is collective and not individual.

A CWC member said that an honest postmortem is the need of the hour.

However, Congress has termed the developments as speculation and rumour.

CWC is a democratic forum to exchange ideas & take corrective action.

Congress expects everyone including the media to respect the sanctity of a closed door meet.

Various conjectures, speculations, insinuations, gossip & rumour mongering in a section of media is unwarranted. pic.twitter.com/t9W83Itp9x
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) May 27, 2019

"The Congress party expects everyone including the media to respect the sanctity of a closed-door meeting of the CWC. Various conjectures, speculations, insinuations, assumptions, gossip and rumour mongering in a section of the media is uncalled for and unwarranted," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said on Twitter.