Firm on stepping down as Congress chief, Rahul Gandhi says party will decide his successor

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who decided to step down following party’s poor performance in the recently held Lok Sabha Elections, on Thursday said that the grand old party will decide on who his successor will be and not him. He clearly stated that he will not participate in the process of electing a new chief for the country's oldest political party.

"I will not participate in the process of electing the new President as it will make things more complicated," Rahul Gandhi said while speaking to media persons in Parliament.

Taking “100 per cent responsibility” for the party's poor performance, Gandhi had offered to step down as president a day after Lok Sabha Elections results were announced on May 23. 

“I am not the right person to make a decision and will not get involved in that process,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. However, his offer to resign was unanimously rejected by the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body.

Continuing his attack on the BJP government at the Centre, the Congress chief said that ‘theft’ in the Rafale fighter jet deal.

Gandhi was responding to a question about Rafale finding a mention in President Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament.

"I maintain my stand that there has been theft in the Rafale jet deal," he told reporters outside Parliament. He has been maintaining that there has been corruption in the Rafale deal and that there should be a thorough probe into the deal.

The Congress has already petitioned the CVC for a probe into alleged corruption in the fighter jet deal. The government has denied any corruption, wrongdoing or favouritism in the deal.

With PTI Inputs