Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, despite his loud rhetoric on the concocted Rafale scam and yelling ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ slogans managed to bag only 52 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, while PM Modi-led BJP managed to bag a whopping 303 seats, and winning with an even larger mandate than 2014.
After the Lok Sabha debacle, the Congress President has reportedly been hell-bent on resigning as the party President.
Amidst all the ongoing theatrics, senior leader Veerappa Moily has, today, come out in support of Rahul Gandhi’s post as Congress chief.
Taking to Twitter, he said that it was Rahul Gandhi who made the party relevant after its defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He further added that there is no question of finding a person outside the family.
In 2014, when everyone wrote off the INC, it was Rahul Gandhi who fought back and made INC relevant again. In 2019, he took on the right issues and cornered the BJP. He should continue to be INC president. We cannot afford not to have him in that position.
— Dr. M. Veerappa Moily (@moilyv) May 28, 2019
Reviving a party is a 5 year process, it a takes a leader like him to think long term and bring INC to its rightful position to serve the people of India. It’s not the question of finding a person outside the family. INC itself is one big family and he belongs to that family.
— Dr. M. Veerappa Moily (@moilyv) May 28, 2019
In another major development, the multi-crore fodder scam convict, Lalu Prasad Yadav, also spoke in support of Rahul Gandhi’s post as Congress chief calling the resignation decision ‘suicidal’. He stated that as soon as a non-Nehru-Gandhi family member takes over the role, they would be painted as a ‘puppet’ by the BJP. Lalu Prasad also blamed regional parties for not projecting Rahul Gandhi as a Prime Ministerial face as it was required to take on the BJP and Narendra Modi irrespective of the Opposition’s seat-share bargaining.
Similar to the 2014 drama when after the poll drubbing, when the then party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi had reportedly offered to resign from the post but the CWC had rejected their proposal, this year too, Rahul Gandhi came up with a similar proposal in the CWC meeting convened after the election results.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC), however, rejected his resignation. After a massive defeat like this, one would imagine that the Congress party would understand the underlying message in the mandate and make some changes. However, the Congress Working Committee has “unanimously” decided that Rahul Gandhi will not take any responsibility for the humiliating defeat. Interestingly, the President of the Congress Working Committee is Rahul Gandhi himself.
Amidst all this, there were reports that the Youth Congress workers have gone a step ahead in their dynasty worship. They have reportedly written letters in their own blood, urging Rahul Gandhi not to quit as the Party president.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had recently blamed the loss on other Congress leaders saying that the party lost because the leaders did not chant ‘Chowkidaar chor hai’ along with Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi, on his part, other than the drama of resignation, has asserted that there were other leaders of the party who put their sons above the party and hence, the party lost. Interestingly, the irony of this statement was lost on Rahul Gandhi.
However, if one is to believe the rumours, Rahul Gandhi is still adamant on resigning from the party president post and to further discuss the issue another meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has been called for, later in the week.
Meanwhile, following the disaster Congress faced in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, many senior leaders like Madhya Pradesh’ Kamal Nath, Uttar Pradesh chief Raj Babbar, Niranjan Patnaik in Odisha, Assam’s Ripun Bora, Dr Ajoy Kumar from Jharkhand, and Punjab’s Sunil Jhakar have reportedly offered to resign from their posts.
