As the Congress party struggling for its survival after its humiliating defeat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and followed by rebellion within the party in several states, senior leader Salman Khurshid has put the blame on Rahul Gandhi for the current crisis stating that the “biggest problem” is that Rahul Gandhi “walked away”.
According to the reports, former union minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday stated that the 49-year-old former Congress President “left in a huff” and his mother Sonia Gandhi appears to be treating herself as a stand-in arrangement until a new Congress chief is selected.
“We haven’t really got together to analyze why we got defeated. Our biggest problem is our leader has walked away,” Khurshid was quoted as saying in the AP report and adding that Rahul Gandhi still retained the allegiance of the party.
“It’s kind of left a vacuum. Sonia Gandhi stepped in, but there is more than an indication that she is treating herself as a stop-gap arrangement. I wish it wasn’t so,” Khurshid reportedly said. Sonia Gandhi was selected as interim president of the Congress party in August this year after Rahul Gandhi refused to take back his resignation, she is expected to lead the party till the time a full time president is found.
Reportedly, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid also said the struggles of the Congress party are such that it is unlikely to win the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra. The former External Affairs Minister said that the struggles of the Congress party are at the point that it may not “ensure its own future”.
Salman Khurshid added that the Congress is facing attrition because it is “taking too long to come to terms” with its defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress party were able to win only 52 of the 542 parliamentary seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, compared to 303 won by the Bharatiya Janata Party. After the defeat in May, Rahul Gandhi resigned as Congress president and his mother, Sonia Gandhi stepped in on an interim basis.
The party is facing an existential crisis ahead of crucial state assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra that are scheduled to be held on October 21. With so much infighting, rebellion and a mass exodus of the leaders in various states, the Congress party has already given up on securing victory in the upcoming state elections.