NEW DELHI: As suspense continues over the future of Rahul Gandhi as Congress President, the party on Monday asked everyone to avoid gossip and think about its future course of action.
After the results of 2019 Lok Sabha elections were announced on May 23, there was a clamour within the Congress for fixing responsibility for its poor showing as it won only 52 seats – which is only a slight improvement when compared to 44 seats it won in 2014 elections.
On Saturday, Congress’s highest decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), met where Rahul Gandhi took full responsibility for poor results and tendered his resignation. Though his resignation was rejected by the CWC, those who had information regarding the meeting had revealed that Rahul Gandhi was adamant on not continuing as the party president. However, the confusion over his resignation still prevails.
“The Congress Working Committee is the highest decision-making body of the Indian National Congress. It is a democratic forum to exchange ideas, formulate policies and take corrective action. In this context, members of the CWC expressed their views in the meeting dated 25th May 2019. The CWC looked at the reverses in the Lok Sabha elections as an opportunity for radical changes and a complete organizational overhaul, for which it authorized the Congress President, Shri Rahul Gandhi,” said Randeep Singh Surjewala, who is in-charge of Congress’s communications department.
“We would request everyone, including the media, to not fall into the trap of conjectures or speculations and await the calibrated efforts by the Congress party towards future course of action,” he added.
Surjewala further said that they expect 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. CWC held a collective deliberation on the performance of the party, the challenges before it as also the way ahead, instead of casting aspersions on the role or conduct of any specific individual. The gist of the deliberations was made public in the CWC resolution of May 25, 2019,” he emphasised.