The Congress Working Committee, the highest decision making body of the Congress, on Saturday turned down Rahul Gandhi’s offer to quit as party president and authorised him to restructure the party in wake of its dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections, sources said.
“Rahulji was inclined to resign over the poor show by the party but the CWC unanimously rejected it”, the sources said.
The Congress leaders praised Mr Gandhi’s leadership and passed a resolution, authorising him to restructure the party.
Among the CWC members, the meeting was attended by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, organisational general secretary K.C. Venugopal, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders Motilal Vohra, A.K. Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sheila Dikshit, Ambika Soni, Kumari Shelja, P. Chidambaram, Tarun Gogoi, Meera Kumar, Oommen Chandy, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Mukul Wasnik.
However, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, who is a special invitee to the CWC in his capacity as the chief minister, did not attend the meeting.
According to media reports, Nath has clarified that the Congress legislative party will be held on Sunday and that he is meeting the party MLAs.
The Congress had won one seat in Madhya Pradesh, that too by Nath’s son Nakul Nath from his traditional Chhindwara seat, where the party came to power in December 2018.
Nath’s government is facing a threat from the BJP as the Congress alleging that the latter is trying to destabilise the government.
The Congress faced a rout for the second time and ended at 52 seats, increasing just eight more from its tally in 2014. (UNI)
