Cong chief asks Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal to look for his replacement

Adamant on his resignation from the post of the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi has conveyed to senior party leaders Ahmed Patel and KC Venugopal to look for his replacement as he has made up his mind not to continue as chief of the grand old party.

Patel is a close confidant of the Congress’ first family and was one of the most powerful politicians during the 10 years of the UPA rule. After the disastrous performance of the party in the Lok Sabha polls, Rahul has cancelled all meetings and appointments and has declined to meet even elected MPs.

Taking responsibility for the drubbing at the hands of the BJP, Rahul on Saturday offered to resign as party president at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, but it was “unanimously rejected”.

“He has conveyed that the party will have to find a new chief as he won’t change his mind. It is believed his mother Sonia and sister Priyanka, who were earlier advising Rahul to continue, too have backed his decision. The future course will be decided in some time now,” said a top AICC leader.

While majority of the Congress leaders hoped that Rahul will “not abandon the post”, sources close to him said he is determined not to take back his decision.

The Congress has mostly been led by members of the Nehru-Gandhi family except for the period after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991. The party did not do well under Sitaram Kesri and then several leaders convinced Sonia Gandhi to take charge of the party.

At the CWC meeting, Rahul had accused three senior leaders — Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath and P Chidambaram — of placing their sons above the party. Priyanka said the entire top brass of the party left Rahul alone to fight it out against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the midst of the disquiet, several State Congress chiefs, including Punjab’s Sunil Jakhar, Jharkhand’s Ajoy Kumar, and Assam’s Ripun Bora, too offered to resign from their posts following the party’s drubbing in the elections. The party won only 52 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.

As crisis beset the Opposition party, its chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Monday urged everyone to respect the sanctity of the CWC meeting and asked the media not to fall into the trap of “conjectures, insinuations, gossip and rumour-mongering”.

Surjewala said it is a democratic forum for exchange of ideas and taking corrective action. It was a “closed-door” meeting and any speculation about it was unwarranted and uncalled for. He was reacting to news reports about happenings at the May 25 meeting, the first of the CWC after the Congress’s humiliating defeat in the parliamentary polls.

“The Congress party expects everyone, including the media, to respect the sanctity of a closed-door meeting of the CWC. Various conjectures, speculation, insinuations, assumptions, gossip and rumour-mongering in a section of the media is uncalled for and unwarranted.

“The CWC held a collective deliberation on the performance of the party, the challenges before it as also the way ahead, instead of casting aspersions on the role or conduct of any specific individual. The gist of the deliberations was made public in the CWC resolution of May 25, 2019,” the Congress leader said in a statement.