All is well, maintains Congress

Congress on Tuesday asserted that no crisis is going on within the party and all such speculations are just a creation of the media as the party reels under a drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday told ANI, "There is no crisis going on in the party except in the media."

President of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, Sheila Dikshit has also written a letter to the party president, urging him to not resign from the top post.

"During these challenging times, Delhi Pradesh Congress is standing with its party president Rahul Gandhi," the former chief minister said in the letter.

 

Earlier in the day, party heavyweights like Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot, Randeep Surjewala and KC Venugopal met Gandhi, calling it a "routine meeting".

Pramod Tiwari, who also met his party chief, said that he has requested the Nehru-Gandhi scion to drop the idea of stepping down as Congress president.

"There is no need for Rahul Gandhi to resign from Congress president post. I have requested him to continue as the party president," Tiwari said.

According to sources, the next Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting is likely to be called in the coming week.

This huddle of the leaders came after Gandhi, who became the party president in 2017, offered to step down from his post at the CWC meeting on May 25, taking moral responsibility for Congress' dismal performance in the 17th general elections.

However, his resignation offer was unanimously rejected by the CWC.

So far, several top leaders have met Gandhi and urged him to continue to lead the party.

Sources said that despite senior members making serious attempts to convince the 48-year-old party chief to rethink his decision, he remains unfazed.

These leaders, sources said, maintained that Congress cannot afford to someone new at the helm for rebuilding the organisation at this juncture and that the responsibility for the defeat is collective and not individual.

The Congress won 52 seats in the recent general elections, which is just eight more than 2014 in the outgoing Lok Sabha.

The National Democratic Alliance on May 23 registered a massive victory in the elections, winning 352 seats to retain power. The Bharatiya Janata Party alone won 303 seats- its highest tally ever.