Rahul Gandhi is resigning as leader of India’s main opposition Congress Party, as it follows from a letter he tweeted out on Thursday. He made it clear that he is taking responsibility for his party’s defeat in the recent general elections.
Speculations about his resignation go as far back as the party’s defeat, when he first announced the intention, but party leaders have since tried to talk him into remaining as the head of the opposition camp. Congress Party workers even launched a campaign to persuade Gandhi to revoke his announced resignation.
As early as Monday, Gandhi, whose father, grandmother, and great grandfather are all former PMs, declined to change his decision to quit, telling journalists that he had already made his decision clear.
The Indian National Congress is currently facing a crisis following the dismal defeat in the elections, where the party managed to win just 52 seats in the 543-member lower house of Parliament – the Lok Sabha. The defeat comes just months after the party seized power from the national ruing Bharatiya Janata Party in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh during State Assembly elections.