New Delhi
Congress party president Rahul Gandhi is unlikely to be the party leader in the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of the Indian parliament and the post may go to someone else as it happened in the previous parliament, party sources said. But Gandhi is expected to be the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) leader.
Two senior Congress general secretaries confirmed that Rahul was not willing to take the position of Leader of the Congress in the Lower House. They said that Gandhi was more eager to continue the ideological battle with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh inside and outside parliament. The comments came as Chief Minister of the western Indian state of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, his deputy Sachin Pilot, and Congress party general secretaries K.C. Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi met Rahul amid a leadership crisis following the party’s rout in federal elections.
Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala also met Rahul at the latter’s residence. Rahul had offered to quit as the party president at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Saturday, but it was unanimously rejected.
The CWC, the party’s top decision-making body, instead authorised Rahul to make structural changes in India’s oldest political party. However, party sources maintained that Rahul was firm on quitting, triggering concern in a party that has always worked under the Nehru-Gandhi umbrella.
Congress party leaders say that Rahul had taken personal responsibility for the party’s poor showing in the elections in which the Congress won just 52 seats, and wanted someone from outside the Gandhi family to head the party.
