Rahul's offer to resign was unanimously rejected

May 25, 2019 16:35

Rahul Gandhi today addressed top Congress leaders at a post-mortem of a national election debacle which, many say, exposes an existential crisis for the grand old party.

During the high-level meeting that went for over three hours, the Congress president kept insisting that he should resign as party president, but it was unanimously rejected, sources say.

Congress leaders praised him and gave him authority to reorganise the party, they added.

The top leadership of the Congress met to review the party's dismal showing in the national election. The party managed to win only 52 seats, way below the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance which won over 350 seats in the 542 Lok Sabha constituencies that went to polls.

Senior leaders Randeep Surjewala, A K Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad addressed the media after the CWC meet.

AK Antony said:

>> Don't agree it (Congress' election outcome) was a disastrous performance, but it was not as per expectation

>> Today we only had a general discussion, we will have detailed discussion on the results later

>> Not true nothing happened (after 2014 results), some recommendations were adopted

Ghulam Nabi Azad said:

>> A loss is never dissected in detail at the first Working Committee meeting, it will happen in the coming days, there will be introspection

>> Congress president Rahul Gandhi was thanked at the meeting for his extensive campaign across the country

>> He (Rahul Gandhi) led the party well, leadership is not always clear on television

>> He (Rahul Gandhi) effectively raised the shortcomings of the government, win-loss are part of democracy

>> At the meeting, Rahul Gandhi said I am party president, I have an accountability for the loss and insisted that he step down

>> But I have never such unanimity as I saw today in the Working Committee rejecting his (Rahul Gandhi's) offer to resign

>> If anyone can lead the opposition, it is Rahul Gandhi; he has demonstrated this in the past few years

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