For two days, Rahul Gandhi – who left the CWC meeting with Priyanka Gandhi – had cancelled all official engagements and yesterday only met two leaders, party treasurer Ahmed Patel and general secretary KC Venugopal.
Rahul Gandhi, who hasn’t returned to the Congress headquarters after Saturday’s big meet where he offered to quit, on Tuesday held back-to-back meetings at his 12, Tughlaq Lane, house in the national capital with Congress leaders including sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Apart from Priyanka Gandhi, a Congress leader said Rahul has also had meetings with senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, general secretary KC Venugopal and the Rajasthan government’s two top leaders, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot.
The string of meetings come 3 days after Gandhi took responsibility for the Congress’s crushing defeat in the national elections at the Congress Working Committee on Saturday and told the party’s top decision-making body to find a new party president because he intended to step down. The CWC unanimously rejected the resignation and authorised Rahul Gandhi to revamp the organisation but there have been multiple reports that Gandhi was holding on to his decision, for now.
At a final tally of 52, the Congress’s crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections had stunned the party and its boss Rahul Gandhi as well. Gandhi, 48, was the first to own up responsibility for the failure. But at the CWC, Gandhi also made it clear that a section of senior Congress leaders in Delhi and the states had let him and the party down, a point that Priyanka Gandhi also echoed when she spoke.
For two days, Rahul Gandhi – who left the CWC meeting with Priyanka Gandhi – had cancelled all official engagements and yesterday only met two leaders, party treasurer Ahmed Patel and general secretary KC Venugopal.
A Congress leader said the Tuesday meetings were evidence of a nuanced shift in Rahul Gandhi stand and a clear signal that he in charge. The Congress had yesterday issued a formal statement after KC Venugopal’s meeting with Rahul Gandhi, describing speculation and rumour mongering in the media about the party “uncalled for and unwarranted”.
Reports from Jaipur suggest that the chief minister and his deputy had been summoned by Rahul Gandhi over the election results in the state where the BJP won 24 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats.
The Congress, which had formed the state government just 6 months ago but didn’t win a single seat in the Lok Sabha, is also facing a crisis of sorts. Two ministers have called for “fixing accountability” of the Lok Sabha defeat, remarks that were seen as targeted at Ashok Gehlot who had spent considerable time and energy for his son Vaibhav’s unsuccessful campaign from Jodhpur.
There is also apprehension in the Congress that the BJP could attempt to bring down the government to force elections. On Tuesday, BJP lawmaker Bhawani Singh Rajawat said Congress leaders appeared to be working to topple its government. “The condition of the Congress in the state is such that we don’t need to work hard,” he said, according to news agency
