More than a month after declaring his intention, Rahul Gandhi on\nWednesday formally resigned as Congress president, saying he is\nresponsible for the loss in the Lok Sabha election and accountability is\n critical for the party\u2019s future growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a four-page open letter, Gandhi urged the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to entrust a group of people with the task\nof finding a new president as it would not be proper for him to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 49-year-old \u2014 who has been adamant on his decision to quit as party president since 25 May, two days after the results in which his party won 52 seats \u2014 also stressed on the need for the Congress to \u201cradically transform itself\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heralding what could be a new era in his party, Gandhi said it had been a honour to serve the Congress, whose values and ideals have served as the lifeblood of \u201cthis beautiful nation\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a letter that was emotive in places and combative in\nothers, he said he owed the country and his organisation a debt of tremendous\ngratitude and love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs President of the Congress Party, I am responsible\nfor the loss of the 2019 election. Accountability is critical for the future\ngrowth of our party. It is for this reason that I have resigned as Congress\nPresident,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRebuilding the party requires hard decisions and\nnumerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019. It\nwould be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as\nPresident of the party,\u201d he said in the letter shared on his Twitter\naccount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gandhi, the most visible face of his party\u2019s election campaign, noted that he personally fought Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS and the institutions they have captured with all his being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI fought because I love India\u2026 At times I stood\ncompletely alone and am extremely proud of it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Indian nation must unite to reclaim and resuscitate its\ninstitutions, Gandhi said. And the instrument of this resuscitation, he added,\nwill be the Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MP from Wayanad, who lost his Amethi seat, also claimed\nhe did not fight a political party in the 2019 election but the entire\nmachinery of the Indian state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking moral responsibility for the party\u2019s poor performance\nin the Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi resigned as Congress president on 25 May but\nthe CWC rejected his resignation and authorised him to initiate changes in the\nparty to revamp and restructure it at all levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cImmediately after resigning, I suggested to my colleagues in the Congress Working Committee that the way forward would be to entrust a group of people with the task of beginning the search for a new President. I have empowered them to do so and committed my full support to this process and a smooth transition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier in the day, Gandhi told reporters the CWC should\nimmediately meet to decide on his successor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanking the thousands of people who have written to him,\nGandhi said in his letter that he would continue to fight for the ideals of the\nCongress with all his strength and will be available to the party whenever his\nservices are required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is a habit in India that the powerful cling to\npower, no one sacrifices power. But we will not defeat our opponents without\nsacrificing the desire for power and fighting a deeper ideological battle. I\nwas born a Congressman, this party has always been with me and is my lifeblood\nand forever that way it shall remain,\u201d Gandhi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He noted that a free and fair election requires the\nneutrality of a country\u2019s institutions and an election cannot be fair without\narbiters a free press, an independent judiciary, and a transparent election\ncommission that is objective and neutral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNor can an election be free if one party has a complete monopoly on financial resources,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nCongress leaders at various levels have been appealing to\nGandhi to take back his resignation but he has been unrelenting.\n\nSome party workers are sitting on a \u2018dharna\u2019\noutside the Congress headquarters, asking him to continue as president. There have\nalso been several resignations of middle-rung leaders. And two days ago, the\nchief ministers of Congress-ruled states met Gandhi in an effort to make him\nchange his mind.\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than a month after declaring his intention, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday formally resigned as Congress president, saying he is responsible for the loss in the Lok Sabha election and accountability is critical for the party\u2019s future growth. In a four-page open letter, Gandhi urged the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to entrust a group of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}