Rahul Gandhi offers to quit as Congress president, party clarifies he didn't

The Congress president Rahul Gandhi has offered his resignation to the Congress Working Committee taking full responsibility for the party's drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, media reports said.
The top leadership of the party wants him to stay as the party president, the reports added.

However, in a clarification issued by the party, the Congress party said that no such offer was made by Rahul Gandhi and that the CWC meeting is still going on.

The Congress won just 52 seats in the 17th Lok Sabha, a marginal improvement of eight seats from the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Congress's Uttar Pradesh and Odisha state chiefs and its campaign committee head in Karnataka have resigned taking onus of the massive defeat. Yogendra Misra, the Congress's Amethi district chief, has also resigned taking onus of the defeat of party president Rahul Gandhi from the traditional bastion of the Gandhis.

"I accept 100 per cent responsibility," Gandhi said at a press conference after it became evident the party was headed for a rout.

Congress's which hoped for a revival in these Lok Sabha elections and pegged its campaign on Rahul Gandhi's 'Chowkidar chor hai' jibe against the Prime Minister in the Rafale deal failed to resonate with the people and couldn't even gain in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where it came to power recently in the state elections.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is also a CWC member, had formally joined politics just before the polls and was made the in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh but despite her presence and widespread campaigning, the Congress didn't win even a single seat in the state. The BJP won handsomely in Uttar Pradesh with a seat count of 62 and bettered its vote share from 42.63 per cent to 49.55 per cent.

It is not clear whether the CWC will accept the resignation and even if it did who will replace Rahul Gandhi as the Congress president.