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Rahul Gandhi will remain Congress president, says Randeep Surjewala
Surjewala said Venugopal will soon call a meeting of Congress general secretaries to identify the reasons for the Lok Sabha poll debacle and take stock for the assembly elections.
The Congress on Wednesday again sought to dismiss speculation that Rahul Gandhi is adamant about his offer to step down from the top post, saying he was, is and will remain the party president.
Gandhi had offered to resign at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on May 25 following the party’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, managing to win just 52 seats. He had asked the CWC to appoint a new chief but the party’s highest decision-making body rejected the offer and passed a resolution authorising him to revamp the organisation.
Since then, the party has officially maintained that Gandhi continues to be the Congress president and will remain so in the future as well.
“Rahulji was, is and will remain the Congress president. We have no doubt about it,” party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said after an informal meeting of senior leaders in Delhi on Wednesday.
The meeting of the now-dissolved core group was chaired by veteran leader AK Antony and attended by Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidambaram, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and Surjewala.
While Gandhi is reportedly in London, his mother Sonia Gandhi and sister and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were in Rae Bareli on Wednesday to review the party’s electoral performance in Uttar Pradesh.
Sonia Gandhi will also chair a meeting of party leaders later this week to discuss the strategy and issues to be raised in the upcoming Parliament session.
