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Soon after Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday, 3 July, said he is no longer Congress president and the party's working committee should meet immediately to decide on his successor, social media was flooded with reactions on the Gandhi scion’s decision to formally step down.
When asked about the development, Smriti Irani, the BJP minister who defeated Gandhi in his bastion of Amethi, simply scoffed and said “Jai Shri Ram.”
‘There Will Be No Other Like You’
“There will be no other like you,” said a tweet posted by Youth Congress, just minutes after the announcement of Rahul’s decision.
JD(S) President and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda lauded Rahul's efforts in strengthening the party.
"He toured the entire country and struggled to strengthen the organisation. He has done his best. He has taken moral responsibility for the defeat, but he's not going to retire,”Gowda told news agency ANI, as he asserted that Rahul will continue to work for the party.
Expressing disappointment over Rahul's resignation as Congress president, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said Rahul should have continued to lead the party with the same dynamism and fighting spirit with which he had steered the election campaign.
"It is a difficult time for the party, but together, we will get through it, to come out stronger and bigger, with Rahul’s vision continuing to guide us," the CM told ANI.
Real leaders are the ones who learn from their mistakes and humiliation to accept defeat, J Aslam Basha, AICC member from Tamil Nadu, wrote on Twitter, even as he asserted that Congress karyakartas are always with Rahul Gandhi.
‘The Time for Renewal is Now’
Congress MP for Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor wrote: “All of us in the Congress must rededicate ourselves to the values and principles of our party and our nation's Constitution. The time for renewal is now.”
Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Jitin Prasada reportedly said the party will once again request Rahul to continue as the president.
"Whatever he (Rahul) has written in the letter, and party's shortcomings, everything must be deliberated upon, keeping the future in mind," ANI quoted Prasada as saying.
‘Goodbye Congress. Goodbye the Nation I Was Born in’
“Goodbye Congress. Goodbye the nation I was born in,” writer and photographer Sanjukta Basu said, adding that the decision brought tears to her eyes.
‘An End to Great Indian National Circus’
However, those from the opposite camp welcomed the decision.
Saying that "it’s an end to great Indian National Circus", BJP National Spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal welcomed Rahul's resignation.
"Now I request him (Rahul) to surrender unethically acquired National Herald property of Rs 5000 crore," Agarwal wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference chairman Farooq Abdullah congratulated Rahul Gandhi for standing by his decision to quit as party president.
"He is young, he can become president again in future. He had always wanted someone else in that position, I can't say whether it is a direct result of the poll defeat. I think he will now work towards building the party," Abdullah told news agency ANI on Wednesday.
(With inputs from ANI)
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