Rahul Gandhi has been trying to resign for a while now, and he officially stepped down as Congress president on 3 July after a stint of roughly 1 and a half years, taking responsibility for the party’s humiliating defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul’s resignation comes as big news, quite obviously – we just finished with the election, the BJP looks strong, the opposition seems weaker than ever, and on top of that, Rahul Gandhi – who had made his stand as a leader in the last couple of years – has resigned.
He was elected as the party president unanimously and quitting didn't come easy –there were meetings after meetings where all the Congress members tried to dissuade him, around 130 office-bearers in Congress even quit in solidarity, but Rahul wouldn't budge.
In a letter that he posted on Twitter, he wrote, “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 that I have resigned as Congress president.”
In this podcast, we take look at his career, from the reluctant politician to the Congress chief, the ups and downs that the party had under his tenure, who the potential candidates are for this vacant position in the Congress, and the kind of reactions his resignation has gotten.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)