Trying to come to terms with a crushing defeat in recent parliamentary elections, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi held a series of meetings with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and senior party leaders on Tuesday as he reportedly continued to insist on resigning as party chief. Rahul, according to media reports, has said that he will continue to head the party till a new leader is decided.
The most important meeting on Tuesday was, of course, between Rahul and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot amid intense feud between the two leaders in a state ruled by the party. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi was also present during the discussions, party insiders said. The party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and general secretary K C Venugopal also met the party president at his Tughlaq Lane home.
All senior leaders have been since Saturday trying to persuade Rahul to take back his resignation but he appears to be adamant about going ahead with his decision to step down as party president. Rahul did some blunt talking against Gehlot, party leader and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath a tongue-lashing at the Congress Working Committee meeting last Saturday for their insisting on making their sons party candidates in the parliamentary election.
Ticking-off Gehlot for camping in Jodhpur for his son Vaibhav's election, Gandhi said the chief minister spent days campaigning extensively for his son in Jodhpur and neglected the rest of Rajasthan.Rahul had also expressed his displeasure over Kamal Nath pressing for his son's candidature. The Congress has been riven by severe internal turmoil and its governments in both Karnataka and Rajasthan teeter on the brink with reports suggesting the BJP may try to wrest power in both the states. In Karnataka, the chasm between the Congress and its alliance partner Janata Dal (S) has widened in the last two weeks, particularly after their near-total rout in parliamentary polls in which the BJP won 27 of the 28 seats in the state.
The Congress failed to win a single of the total of 25 parliamentary seats in Rajasthan as the BJP swept all of them. The CWC meeting, which had rejected Rahul’s offer to quit taking responsibility for the electoral debacle, was held in the backdrop of the Congress winning just 52 Lok Sabha seats and drawing a naught in 18 states and federally-administered territories. Rahul himself lost one of the two seats he contested.
Two senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and K C Venugopal, who are considered close to Rahul, had met him on Monday and reportedly returned with the impression that the party chief is in no mood to step back from his decision to quit.