Congress party President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he sticks to his decision to step down and that the party and not he will decide on who his successor will be. Rahul told reporters here that he is not the person to take a decision on his successor. He was asked who will succeed him as Congress president.
Rahul had on May 25 announced his decision to quit as party President following the severe drubbing of his party in the parliamentary elections in which the Congress got 52 seats, just eight more than in the previous national poll in 2014.
However, the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, has rejected Rahul’s offer to resign and asked him to overhaul the party at all levels. The Congress chief also maintained that there was ‘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 today.
“I maintain my stand that there has been theft in the Rafale jet deal,” he said. The government has denied any corruption, wrongdoing or favouritism in the deal between India and France.