Rahul adamant to quit but CWC asks him to reshape party

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Rahul adamant to quit but CWC asks him to reshape party

Sunday, 26 May 2019 | PNS | New Delhi

Rahul adamant to quit but CWC asks him to reshape party

Rahul Gandhi is said to be insistent on resigning as the Congress president despite the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Saturday unanimously rejecting his offer to put in his papers taking responsibility for the party’s Lok Sabha poll debacle.

The CWC authorised him to carry out an overhauling and restructuring of the party at all levels but Rahul is learned to have asked the party to look for another chief.

This is the second time in five years that Rahul has offered to resign. Following the drubbing in 2014 Lok Sabha, Rahul, who was the Congress vice president then, along with party president Sonia Gandhi had offered to resign which too was rejected by the CWC.

AICC sources said Rahul was adamant on resigning and also rejected a few suggestions that favoured his sibling, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, to take over as the chief of the grand old party.

When the name of his sister came up as an option, Rahul reportedly said, “Don’t drag my sister into it. It is not necessary that the Congress president should be from the Gandhi family.” Both Rahul and his sister Priyanka campaigned extensively across the country in this election.

If not Rahul, then who, this question rankled the minds of the Congressmen as Rahul remained unmoved with Priyanka and his mother Sonia’s efforts to see him reason too failed.

Rahul informed 52-member CWC that he would like to exit as its top boss. He had taken over from Sonia a year and a half ago.

“We have to continue our fight. I am and will remain a disciplined soldier of the Congress and continue to fight fearlessly. But I do not want to remain the party president,” Rahul reportedly said to the members.

Conspicuous by his absence was senior party leader and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who, it turned out, offered to resign as MPCC president.

Leaders exiting from the four-hour-long huddle remained tightlipped and did not speak to the waiting media contingent. But sources said Rahul’s silence after the meeting and his absence at the Press briefing was seen by many as a sign that the party was finding it tough to talk him out of his decision.

Senior leaders once again talked of the oft-used  “thorough introspection” but did not share the reasons for the party’s “disastrous” performance.

Former Defence Minister and CWC member AK Antony, in fact, asserted at a Press conference later that even though the party lost, which is common in democracy, it cannot be termed disastrous.

AICC chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said all CWC members “unanimously and in one word” rejected Rahul’s offer to resign. “We need Rahul to guide us in these challenging times,” Surjewala said joined by senior leaders AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, KC Venugopal and RPN Singh.

Azad said Rahul’s offer to tender his resignation was rejected unanimously by the CWC. “I have been in politics for four decades. I have been instrumental in making many leaders to write their resignation but I have never seen such unanimity across age groups in any CWC. Nobody has doubted Rahul’s leadership,” said Azad.

“In a democracy winning or losing keeps happening but providing leadership is a different matter. He gave a leadership, one which is visible - maybe less on TV but very evident among public. We have accepted our defeat but it was a defeat of numbers and not ideology,” he added.

CWC resolution further added that the Congress “accepts the people’s mandate with humility and will perform its duty as the Opposition, raising people’s issues and holding the next Government accountable to the people of India.”

“The CWC unanimously called upon Rahul to lead the party in its ideological battle and to champion the cause of India’s youth, the farmers, the SC/ST/OBCs, the minorities, the poor and the deprived sections,” it said.

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