Staff Reporter / NEW DELHI
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has catgorically told the party to find a new chief as he won’t change his mind about stepping down from the post of the party chief, according to congress sources.
Mr Gandhi, who informed the party about his decision to quit following the party’s decimation in the Lok Sabha polls, has refused to meet the party’s newly-elected lawmakers who called on him. All his meetings and appointments have been cancelled, though he met two envoys from the party.
Mr. Gandhi is learnt to have asked treasurer Ahmed Patel and general secretary K.C. Venugopal to look for his replacement when they met him on Monday.
Sources say Rahul Gandhi “won’t abandon the post” even though he is determined to quit, and will give the party time to choose a new person for the top job. Sources said that there could be another CWC meeting later this week if Mr. Gandhi insisted on stepping down.
‘Reports baseless’
Mr. Patel, however, denied these reports. “I had sought time before the CWC to meet the Congress president to discuss routine administrative work. The meeting today was in that context. All other speculation is incorrect and baseless,” he tweeted in response to reports that Mr. Gandhi was insisting on stepping down.
Sources, however, told The Hindu that Mr. Venugopal — the only other All India Congress Committee (AICC) office-bearer who met Mr. Gandhi — was locked in back-to-back meetings with senior leaders, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, general secretaries and State in-charges, including Jyotiraditya Scindia and Rajeev Satav.
A close aide of Mr. Gandhi also met Mr. Venugopal. There is, however, speculation that if Mr. Gandhi insists on stepping down as party chief, he could be asked to either head the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) or lead the Congress in the Lok Sabha.
The party, however, is three short of the numbers 55-member mark required to qualify officially for post of Leader of the Opposition.
Adding to the sense of disquiet within the Congress, several State chiefs including Assam’s Ripun Bora, Punjab’s Sunil Jhakhar and Jharkhand’s Ajoy Kumar have offered their resignations.
Congress communication chief, Randeep Surjewala, however, issued an official statement almost immediately, urging the media “not to fall for conjectures”.
“Various conjectures, speculations, insinuations, assumptions, gossip and rumour mongering in a section of the media is uncalled for and unwarranted,” Mr. Surjewala said in a statement.
“The CWC looked at the reverses in the Lok Sabha elections as an opportunity for radical changes and a complete organisational overhaul, for which it authorised the Congress president, Shri Rahul Gandhi. The Congress party expects everyone including the media to respect the sanctity of a closed door meeting of the CWC,” Mr. Surjewala added.
On Saturday, the CWC had unanimously rejected Mr. Gandhi’s resignation, one has not heard the last word on the issue.