Congress Working Committee to meet this week to discuss party president, Rahul Gandhi adamant on quitting: Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s decision to step down as party chief is not going to change, reports said on Tuesday. As Gandhi is adamant on his decision to quit the party after Congress’ massive defeat in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, the Congress Working Committee is reportedly planning to hold another meeting to discuss possible candidates for party chief in the next four days. While Gandhi has made it clear that he would not change his mind to quit, the senior party leaders are still planning to ask him to reconsider his decision.
The last meeting of the CWC was held on Saturday where Rahul Gandhi tendered his resignation taking moral responsibility for the party’s defeat. However, the party’s highest poll-making body rejected the resignation at the meeting. Rahul further demanded the committee not to consider his mother Sonia Gandhi or sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as his replacement.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress won only 54 Lok Sabha seats, marginally higher than the 44 seats it got in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Gandhi has taken the poll debacle seriously and said that he did not want to continue as the party president.
Apart from Rahul Gandhi, Jharkhand Congress chief Ajoy Kumar, Assam unit chief Ripun Bora, Maharashtra unit chief Ashok Chavan, Uttar Pradesh unit chief Raj Babbar, and Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik have also tendered their resignation taking the moral responsibility of the defeat in their respective states.
Reports said that Rahul would give some time to the party to pick up his replacement as he was not abandoning the post even though he is determined to quit. Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi have also agreed to Rahul’s decision despite trying to make him change his mind. Now, both Priyanka and Sonia seem to acknowledge that there has to be a change of guard and a total reset.
