New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi was reported to be adamant on his stand of stepping down from his post after the dismal performance of the party in the recently concluded general election.
Earlier, Gandhi had offered to resign in the Congress Working Committee, which met on Saturday to deliberate on the party’s loss, but his resignation proposal was unanimously rejected.
NDTV has reported that the Congress chief has refused to meet the newly elected lawmakers and has taken the final call of quitting from the party post. Reports said that the Gandhi scion met senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and K C Venugopal and communicated his stand to them.
Gandhi, however, would give the party some time to choose a new leader and would continue to chair the party for the time being.
Gandhi reportedly made it clear that he would not "vanish" and would continue to work for the party.
"It is not necessary that the president should be from Gandhi family," the news reported quoted him. When Priyanka Gandhi's name came up as an alternative, Gandhi reportedly said: "Don't drag my sister into it."
Sources have confirmed that despite various party leaders have asked him to stay, Gandhi was unmoved. Officially, the Congress tried to underplay this news by calling the news reports as speculation.
The party’s statement came after media reports quoted sources to suggest that Gandhi continued to insist on his resignation as party president despite the CWC rejecting it.
Congress spokesperson has tweeted the party's official press statement in this regard.
CWC is a democratic forum to exchange ideas & take corrective action.
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) May 27, 2019
Congress expects everyone including the media to respect the sanctity of a closed door meet.
Various conjectures, speculations, insinuations, gossip & rumour mongering in a section of media is unwarranted. pic.twitter.com/t9W83Itp9x
"The Congress party expects everyone including the media to respect the sanctity of a closed-door meeting of the CWC. Various conjectures, speculations, insinuations, assumptions, gossip and rumour mongering in a section of the media is uncalled for and unwarranted," the press statement read.
Through the letter, the party requested the media to avoid engaging in speculation regarding the decisions to be taken by Congress.
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