Don't go voices grow in Congress; Rahul non-committal

New Delhi, DHNS: As Rahul Gandhi remained adamant on his resignation as Congress president, UPA constituents such as the RJD and the DMK stepped in, cajoling him to stay on contending that he was the best person to revive the party.

Besides RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and DMK president M K Stalin, superstar Rajnikant, senior leaders M Veerappa Moily and Sheila Dikshit also urged Rahul to withdraw his resignation but the Congress president remained non-committal.

A day after refusing to meet party leaders, Rahul on Tuesday held a series of separate meetings with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders K C Venugopal, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his deputy Sachin Pilot and Randeep Singh Surjewala.

The meetings came three days after Rahul told the Congress Working Committee (CWC) that he would like to step down as Congress president, an offer that was rejected outright by the party's top decision-making body.

"Rahul's offer to resign is suicidal. Opposition parties had the common goal to dislodge the BJP but failed to build a national narrative. The result in a particular election can never alter the reality in a country as diverse and plural as India,” RJD supremo Lalu Prasad said.

DMK chief M K Stalin requested Rahul not to step down from his post, saying he has won the hearts of the people even though his party lost the general election.

Senior Congress leader Moily said that Narendra Modi winning the 2019 Lok Sabha election was not a cause enough for Rahul Gandhi to give up the post.

Various options such as Rahul taking up the leadership of the Congress party in Parliament and leaving the organisational responsibilities to senior leaders and a possible padayatra were being tossed around, party leaders were still hopeful that the Congress president will relent.

On Saturday, the CWC had authorised Rahul to carry out a “complete overhaul and detailed restructuring” of the party at every level after the humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha polls that saw it winning 52 seats— eight seats more that its worst ever performance of 44 seats in the 2014 general elections.

The turn of fortunes of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka had put the state governments in jeopardy. The Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh has a slender majority. The independent legislators and BSP members supporting it were having second thoughts on continuing their support.

In Karnataka, there is unrest within the Congress-JD(S) coalition ranks after its poor performance in the state, prompting the Congress to send AICC general secretaries K C Venugopal and Ghulam Nabi Azad to the state to deal with the situation.