Congress president Rahul Gandhi offered to resign at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting over the party's poor performance in the Lok Sabha Elections. However, his resignation was not accepted by the committee.
At a press conference addressed by multiple Congress leaders after the meeting, KC Venugopal said that Rahul presented his resignation, but it was unanimously rejected by the CWC. "CWC recommended thorough introspection, and requested him for a complete overhaul and restructuring of the party. A plan to this effect will be presented at the earliest," he said.
Responding to a question over the Congress not implementing a report prepared by AK Antony on the party's 2014 poll debacle, the former Defence Minister said, "How do you know nothing happened? It is a report that was given only to Sonia Gandhi. Some of the recommendations were implemented. Some weren't." Antony added, "That chapter was over. What the Congress President is going to do after the meeting, I can't speculate."
"I disagree with assessment that this was a disastrous performance," AK Antony added.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "If If anyone can lead the opposition, it is Rahul Gandhi; he has demonstrated this in the past few years."
"There will be introspection. When Rahul Gandhi was the party Vice President, then too he pointed out the faults of the government, fought against issues, gave leadership to Congress," Azad added.
In 2014, then Congress President Sonia Gandhi and then Vice President Rahul Gandhi had offered to resign after the party's defeat in the Lok Sabha Elections. Then too, the CWC had rejected their offer, attributing the loss to "collective responsibility".
Rahul Gandhi’s offer to resign was along expected lines. Rahul was expected to resign just as then Congress President and former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao did in 1996, after the party faced major losses in the 11th Lok Sabha election. The election had thrown up a hung parliament, with no party getting close to 272 seats. The Congress had then won 140 seats. Sitaram Kesri was then elected as the Congress chief.
Senior Congress leaders including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh, AK Antony, were in attendance. The party also called the Chief Ministers of five Congress-ruled states and Union Territories to the CWC. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, however, skipped the meeting.
Out of the 23 CWC members, only four won in the just-concluded elections -- party chief Rahul Gandhi, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Gaurav Gogoi and A Chella Kumar.
12 CWC members who lost the polls include heavyweights like Mallikarjun Kharge, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Raghuveer Singh Meena, Jitin Prasada, Deepender Hooda, Sushmita Dev, KH Muniyappa and Arun Yadav.
Seven CWC members did not participate in the Lok Sabha Elections this year.
The Congress only managed to win eight seats more than what they won in 2014, and secured 52 seats in the Lok Sabha. Congress Uttar Pradesh in-charge Raj Babbar resigned from the post on Friday, along with campaign committee chief H.K. Patil, Odisha party chief Niranjan Patnaik and Amethi District Congress President Yogendra Misra.
In Uttar Pradesh, the party failed to even retain the Gandhi bation of Amethi, where Rahul Gandhi lost to Union Minister and BJP candidate Smriti Irani by a margin of over 55,000 votes.
In Karnataka, the party won only one seat with senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge losing by a huge margin.
Congress won only 3 seats in three states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh -- where it formed governments in December 2018.
"The chief ministers and party incharges from these three states will answer for the debacle and issues that needs to be prioritised in their respective states," a source said.
Prior to the CWC meeting, a former Chief Minister belonging to the Congress party who lost the election told Indian Express, "Our strategy was wrong. We took a negative attitude calling Modi.. chowkidar chor hai…that gave very negative vibes and people did not appreciate that. Even though Rahul Gandhi worked very hard, he monotonously started repeating that…which people did not appreciate.”
With IANS inputs