New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi is expected to offer his resignation on Saturday at the first Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting post-Lok Sabha elections. The leader and several state unit chiefs of the party decided to quit taking moral responsibility of the defeat.
Sources had earlier said that the grand old party president's resignation offer was rejected by his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. However, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot called the reports "baseless and irrelevant". "We shall never forget that it was because of Rahul Gandhi's tireless efforts and fighting spirit that Congress was able to put up a strong challenge to the NDA government," he said.
After the 2019 mandate, rumors of Congress President’s resignation are baseless and irrelevant. We shall never forget that it was because of Sh. #RahulGandhi’s tireless efforts and fighting spirit that Congress was able to put up a strong challenge to NDA government.1/2— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) May 24, 2019
Ahead of the CWC meeting, senior Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam asked why should Gandhi resign when the entire party fought "bravely" under his leadership. He said that the election loss was their "bad luck" but that shouldn't raise questions on the leadership.
"Under the leadership of Congress President @RahulGandhi we fought this election bravely. He worked very hard undoubtedly. Our bad luck,we lost. Why should he resign? No. He should continue to lead the party. We will fight back under his leadership and come back soon," Nirupam tweeted.
In the so called Modiwave,several parties & leaders have lost badly. No one is asking their presidents to resign.Nor they offered to resign.There is a conspiracy to malign our leader & a well designed plan to target him.It must be stopped & party must stand by him fully.C/2— Sanjay Nirupam (@sanjaynirupam) May 25, 2019
Besides Gandhi several Congress leaders expressed their wish to quit from their respective posts. Among them was Uttar Pradesh state party chief Raj Babbar, Amethi district unit president of Congress Yogendra Misra, Karnataka Congress campaign committee chairman and former Minister HK Patil and party's Odisha head Niranjan Patnaik.
The Congress could manage to add only a few seats to its 2014 tally of 44 seats. In Uttar Pradesh, only Sonia Gandhi won the Raebareli seat, while Gandhi lost the family bastion of Amethi to Smriti Irani.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters on Thursday, Gandhi said the Congress Working Committee will decide whether he should resign as the party chief following the electoral debacle. "I take 100 per cent responsibility for this defeat," he told reporters.
"Our candidates fought with whole of heart and courage. I want to thank them from my heart. Our fight is that of an ideology. There are two different set of thinking — one is that of Narendra Modi and BJP, and the other one is Congress... We would have to accept that in this election, BJP and Narendra Modi have won," he added.
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