Rahul seeks time to think over CWC’s ‘unanimous request’ to be Lok Sabha LoP

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Saturday (June 8) adopted two resolutions. One of them was an “unanimous” request to Rahul Gandhi to accept the position of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Rahul has reportedly said he will “think it over and take a decision”.

According to Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, Rahul Gandhi told the CWC he would take a call very soon.

This will be the first time that the Congress, since its ouster from power in 2014, will get the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. It failed to get the position in the past 10 years as its tally was below the requisite 10 per cent of total seats in the House, both in 2014 and 2019.

The Congress has emerged as the second-largest party in the Lok Sabha this time, improving its tally to 99 from 52 in the 2019 elections. 

“Moral defeat for the PM”

Venugopal said at a press conference later that the first resolution adopted by the CWC, was to congratulate the people of the country for decisively rejecting the style of governance of the past decade. “The verdict of the people is a moral defeat for the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi), who fought the election in his name,” he added.

The resolution also heaped high praise on party president Mallikarjun Kharge, and senior leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

According to Venugopal, in the second resolution, the CWC unanimously requested Rahul to take the position of the LoP, Lok Sabha.

“We fought like warriors”

Despite everything — no level playing field, freezing of Congress accounts, blackmail, and intimidation of leaders — the party have presented a wonderful performance in the polls, said Venugopal. “We went through a very difficult time and a very worrisome journey, but we fought like warriors to save democracy and the Constitution,” said Venugopal.

The CWC also discussed the problems in the states where the party fared badly and brainstormed on how to improve it, said the Congress leader. “Revival of the Congress has started — this was the sentiment in the CWC. The atmosphere was very different from the CWC of four months ago,” Venugopal added.

“Several attempts were made to divert the agenda of the INDIA bloc. We even had to fight exit polls for three days. But the INDIA bloc stood strongly to get across its guarantees and its narrative” he asserted.

Review of performance

“We will have a thorough examination of results in the states where we have not performed well. The Congress president will form a committee to analyse the results in the states where we did not do well,” Venugopal said.

Party general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, told the media, “Rahul Gandhi told the CWC that we must stick to issues of price rise, unemployment, social justice, saving the Constitution, and others raised during the campaign.”

Ramesh also said a committee will be formed in every state where the party’s performance was not satisfactory.” A review will be done and the final report will then be presented to the Congress president,” he added.