Congress President, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday finally put out a letter formally reiterating his decision of quitting as the party chief. Regarding his successor, he said that the party’s highest decision-making body - Congress Working Committee (CWC) - is entrusted with the decision.
He took to Twitter saying:
“As President of the Congress party, I am responsible for the loss of the 2019 election. Accountability is critical for the future growth of our party. It is for this reason I have resigned as Congress President."
“It is an honour for me to serve the Congress Party, whose values and ideals have served as the lifeblood of our beautiful nation. I owe the country and my organisation a debt of tremendous gratitude and love," he added.
He posted a four-page letter on his Twitter going on the details on how the party led the campaign, accountability of the electoral failure and the need for the party to radically transform itself.
“Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019. It would be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as president of the party," he wrote in the letter.
He had offered to resign on 25th May after the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
The decision was however rejected by the party's working committee.
Gandhi further said in the letter that a free and fair election requires the neutrality of a country’s institutions. An election cannot be fair without arbiters – a free press, an independent judiciary, and a transparent election commission that is objective and neutral, he said. Nor can an election be free if one party has a complete monopoly on financial resources, he added.
“We didn’t fight a political party in the 2019 election. Rather we fought the entire machinery of the Indian state, every institution was marshalled against the opposition. It is now crystal clear that our once cherished institutional neutrality no longer exists in India," Gandhi said in the letter.
He further revealed in the letter that many of his colleagues and senior leaders of the Congress suggested that he should nominate the next Congress President.
“While it is important for someone new to lead our party, it would not be correct for me to select the person. Immediately after resigning I suggested to my colleagues in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) that the way forward would be to entrust a group of people with the task of beginning the search for a new President. I have empowered them to do so and committed my full support to the process and a smooth transition," he added.