Congress president Rahul Gandhi, amid rumblings within the party after a disastrous performance in the Lok Sabha elections, is said to have accused three senior leaders of placing their respective sons above the party while his sister Priyanka has alleged the entire top-brass left him alone to fight it out against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party sources said.

Narrating the inside details of the crucial Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, which was held on Saturday to assess the party's poll rout, the party leaders said Rahul did a lot of “plain speaking” in his surgical analysis of the role of several party leaders while himself offering to quit as the party president.

He also said he does not want any other member of the Gandhi family to succeed him, virtually ruling out Priyanka as well for the top party position.

Rahul, who left the meeting abruptly and was adamant there on not continuing as the Congress president, ticked off three senior party leaders — former Union minister P. Chidambaram, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot — saying they placed their sons before party interests.

Chidambaram’s son Karti and Nath’s son Nakul managed to win the Lok Sabha elections from their respective seats but Gehlot’s son Vaibhav lost.

CWC sources said that when former Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia urged Rahul to strengthen the state leaderships of the party, the party president quipped looking at Chidambaram, saying: “Mr Chidambaram threatened to resign if a ticket was denied to his son.”

About Kamal Nath, who was absent from the CWC meeting, Rahul said: “Mr Nath said how could he be the chief minister if his son was not fielded.”

Taunting Gehlot, the Congress chief said the Rajasthan chief minister spent seven days campaigning for his son in Jodhpur, neglecting the rest of the state.

Party sources said the top leadership was working out possible strategies for its future course of action, even as there are rumblings within the Congress over the turn of events at the CWC meeting.

Stating that Priyanka lost her cool more than once during the four-hour-long CWC deliberations, a party leader said the AICC general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh said: “All those responsible for the party's defeat are sitting in this room.”

When some party leaders were trying to convince Rahul to withdraw his resignation, which he had offered taking moral responsibility for the election debacle, Priyanka is learnt to have intervened, saying: “Where were you when my brother was fighting all by himself and alone?”

Priyanka sat through the meeting, looking visible anguished and interjected at least twice, while saying on one occasion: “No one supported Congress President in taking forward the narrative of Rafale and ‘chowkidar chor hai'.”

Rahul is learnt to have voiced his disappointment at the state of affairs in the party when he asked the CWC why can't anyone else be the Congress chief.

Sources said Priyanka also urged her brother not to resign saying it would be like “falling into the BJP’s trap”.

Rahul also expressed his displeasure at not being supported in the Rafale campaign and is said to have asked the party leaders present in the meeting how many of them backed him in building the corruption narrative against Prime Minister Modi.

When some leaders raised their hands to say that they spoke about Rafale, Gandhi is said to have dismissed them.