Several Congress leaders publicly appealed to Rahul Gandhi today to remain the Congress president and restructure the party, a day after he became incommunicado following his resignation as party chief.
Some senior leaders said Narendra Modi's win cannot be the reason for Rahul to quit as electoral victories or defeats cannot be the sole criterion for taking such a decision.
After RJD chief Lalu Prasad's comment that Rahul's resignation would be suicidal for the Congress and all forces battling the Sangh parivar, another ally, DMK chief Stalin, appealed to Rahul to continue leading the party.
At the Congress Working Committee meeting on May 25, which was called to analyse the election results and the party's dismal show, Rahul had done some plain-speaking, party sources said. He had named senior leaders P. Chidambaram, Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath and said that they had worked for their families and ignored the party. He said Rajasthan chief minister Gehlot spent days campaigning extensively for his son Vaibhav in Jodhpur and neglected the rest of the state.
The Congress drew a blank in Rajasthan.
Yesterday, when Gehlot wanted to meet Rahul, he could not as the Congress president had cancelled all appointments for the day.
Gehlot came to meet Rahul today and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi was present at that meeting, party sources said. Gehlot's deputy Sachin Pilot also came to meet the Congress chief separately.
After Rahul gave Gehlot a tongue-lashing at the CWC meeting, several Rajasthan ministers and MLAs demanded that accountability to be fixed for the Lok Sabha poll debacle. Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee secretary Sushil Asopa today publicly said that Pilot should have been made the chief minister, not Gehlot. Asopa added that while this was his opinion, the general sentiment in the state unit was similar.
Among the leaders who requested Rahul to take back his resignation was Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit. 'There is no need for the Congress president and the party workers to get disheartened by the setbacks in the Lok Sabha elections,' she said.
Senior party leader M. Veerappa Moily said Rahul was the 'most competent person' to lead the party and the election setback was a 'passing phase'. The former Union minister said the outcome of one or two elections could not be a pointer to the future prospects of the Congress, which had seen many ups and downs in its long history. 'Just because (Narendra) Modi has won... that is not the criteria to leave the presidentship,' he said.
Party MP Shashi Tharoor said this was not the time for the Congress to sit and lick its wounds. The Thiruvananthapuram MP said it was unfair to pin all the blame on Rahul. 'I think it does a disservice to the very complex challenges facing the Congress party to reduce it to a question of one person. While Rahulji has bravely taken full responsibility for the defeat, we all are responsible for what went wrong and we all have a responsibility to ensure the party's revival,' he said.
He said Rahul would easily beat any other interested candidate by a landslide if the party decided to hold a free and fair election tomorrow for the position of party president. 'That is the kind of place he has built in the hearts of the rank and file of the Congress party.'
Asked whether a non-Gandhi could lead the party, Tharoor said others can rise to prominent positions in the Congress. The last two Congress Prime Ministers were not Gandhis, he pointed out.
Tharoor also pitched himself as a candidate for the job of the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, if offered the post.
DMK chief Stalin, who had said before the elections that he would support Rahul's name for Prime Minister, requested the Congress president not to step down during a phone conversation. DMK sources said that Stalin told the Congress chief that although the Congress had suffered defeat, 'you have won the hearts of people'.
