Firm on quitting
New Delhi: Chief Ministers of five Congress-ruled states on Monday met party President Rahul Gandhi here and said he was free to reorganize the party in the wake of the Lok Sabha election disaster.
“We hope he will decide (the future),” Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told the media after the meeting with Gandhi also attended by Amarinder Singh (Punjab), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), Bhupesh Bhagel (Chhattisgarh) and V. Narayansamy (Puducherry).
Speaking for all the Chief Ministers, Gehlot told the media that Gandhi heard them “carefully”.
“We spoke freely… He heard us carefully. We have told him that he is free to replace people or reorganize the party. We hope he will decide,” he said.
Earlier, Rahul made it clear he was firm on giving up the party’s leadership.
Shortly after Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot said that Gandhi should remain at the party’s helm, the party chief told reporters here: “I have made my decision clear. You all know it.”
The Congress faces a leadership issue, with Gandhi announcing he won’t continue as the President and asking the party to pick a successor.
Most Congress leaders, however, want Gandhi to continue to lead the party.
The Congress won just 52 seats in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi himself was defeated in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh although he got elected from Wayanad in Kerala. The party suffered a drubbing even in the Hindi heartland states where only last year it had ousted the BJP from power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Gandhi had earlier blamed Gehlot and Kamal Nath for the reverses in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in the Lok Sabha battle.
Gehlot said earlier that the Chief Ministers will show their solidarity with Gandhi and that everyone was responsible for the election debacle.
He said the 2019 election outcome was not a defeat of the Congress programme. (IANS)
