Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : Congress president Rahul Gandhi is unlikely to be the party leader in the Lok Sabha and the post may go to someone else as it happened in the previous Lok Sabha, party sources said on Tuesday. But Gandhi is expected to be the CPP leader. Two senior Congress general secretaries spoke to confirmed that Rahul Gandhi was not willing to take the position of leader of the Congress in the lower house. They said that Gandhi was more eager to continue the ideological battle with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor RSS in and outside Parliament. The leaders pointed out that he had taken the party’s poor showing in the Lok Sabha elections in which the Congress won just 52 seats personally and offered to step down as the Congress president and called for someone outside the Gandhi family to head the party.
Gandhi told senior leaders that he did not want to get into the appointments of state unit and district chiefs. But party sources said that Rahul Gandhi was likely to opt for the post of Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) leader in the Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot were on Tuesday seen making a beeline at Rahul Gandhi’s residence following his insistence on stepping down from the top post. Gandhi had offered his resignation first during the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Saturday but it was unanimously rejected. The CWC, which is the party’s top decision making body has also authorised Rahul Gandhi to make structural changes in the party. Gandhi was slated to meet Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot as well, party source said. On Monday, Gandhi had declined to meet Gehlot despite an appointment and asked him to meet veteran party leader KC Venugopal instead. His offer to step down as Congress president was earlier rejected by Congress Working Committee members.
