Shouldn't Resign, Says Sheila Dikshit As Rahul Gandhi Refuses To Meet Her

Rahul Gandhi, who is determined to quit as Congress president, today refused to meet party leaders including Sheila Dikshit even as scores of leaders and workers gathered outside his Delhi home with slogans and placards to try to persuade him to change his mind. Sheila Dikshit, a three-time chief minister of Delhi, said Rahul Gandhi refused to meet her.

"I have given him the message that he should not resign. We want him to continue on his post, otherwise it will cause us pain. We have conveyed that to him," Sheila Dikshit, who was among the seven Congress candidates who lost in Delhi, said.

Ms Dikshit had said this morning that the party would not accept Rahul Gandhi's resignation at all. "He has done good work. Winning and losing are part of life, but it is important to keep fighting. We have lost and we are analysing our defeat. We will remedy our mistakes. We lost during Indira Gandhi's time too," said the former Delhi Chief Minister, who is seen as close to the Gandhi family.

Rahul Gandhi, at a Congress Working Committee meeting he called on Saturday after the party's massacre in the national election, said he had decided to step down as party president, a post he took over from his mother Sonia Gandhi in December 2017. He also put forth a biting critique of veterans who, he alleged, had put their sons before the party's interest and thus cost the Congress in big states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which it had won just five months ago.

Since then, despite pleading and entreaties by party men, Rahul Gandhi has refused to go back on his resignation and has firmly asked the Congress to pick a new president, that too a non-Gandhi. For the Congress, which has mostly had a Nehru-Gandhi at the helm, such a prospect is unthinkable.

Several state Congress units have passed resolutions urging Rahul Gandhi to take back his resignation offer.