New Delhi: Asserting that he is no longer the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said in a letter that it had been an honour to serve the party whose values and ideals have served as the "lifeblood of this beautiful nation".
As president of the Congress, he said he is responsible for the loss of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
"Accountability is critical for the future growth of our party. It is for this reason that I have resigned as Congress president," he said in an open letter shared on Twitter.
Gandhi, who suggested that the Congress Working Committee be entrusted with the task of finding a new party president and it would not be correct for him to select his successor, also said he owes the country and his organisation a debt of tremendous gratitude and love.
He said he has at times felt "alone" in his fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS but is proud of it.
"Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019. It would be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as President of the party," he said.
One must shed power to defeat opponents, Gandhi, who has been firm on his decision to quit as party president, said.
"We will not defeat our opponents without sacrificing our desire for power," he said.
"The Congress must radically transform itself, it is the party's duty to defend people's voices that BJP is crushing.
"I was born a Congressman, this party has always been with me and is my life's blood and forever that way it shall remain," he said in his letter.
Many of his colleagues suggested he should nominate the next Congress president,
"While it is important for someone new to lead our party, it would not be correct for me to select that person," he noted.
The scion of the Gandhi family who led the party from December 2017 said his fight has never been a single battle for political power.
Deepest respect: Priyanka Gandhi
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday said she respected her brother Rahul Gandhi's decision to step down as the party president and lauded his "courage" to do so.
Priyanka retweeted her brother's letter with a message.
"Few have the courage that you do @rahulgandhi. Deepest respect for your decision," she said.
In the four-page open letter, Gandhi had urged the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to entrust a group of people with the task of finding a new president as it would not be proper for him to do so.
Leaderless
Stuck between a leader determined to quit and party officials unwilling to accept his leaving, Congress is effectively leaderless more than a month after its election drubbing and facing key state polls later this year.
Chief ministers from five Congress-ruled states went to New Delhi on Monday where they spent two hours trying to convince Gandhi to reverse his May 25 decision to resign.
"We told him our point of view, openly, in a long conversation," Ashok Gehlot, a senior Congress leader and chief minister of Rajasthan, told reporters.
"We hope he will consider our view and take the right decision," he said.
A close aide to Gandhi, speaking to Reuters after the meeting, said the 49-year-old was firm about stepping aside as Congress president, a position he held since succeeding his mother, Sonia Gandhi, in late 2017.
"He will never change his mind," the aide said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
"He feels that the way forward is not him continuing as Congress president ... and let somebody outside the Gandhi family be Congress president," the aide said, adding the party cannot "just depend on one person, one family".
Gandhi will remain in politics to help rebuild Congress from the ground up, the aide said, rather than stay on as leader due to his family's political lineage.
No option
Despite the defeats, Congress officials say they want Gandhi to stay because they fear the party may splinter without him.
"There is nobody else aside from him who can keep the organisation together," said a member of the party's top decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), who requested anonymity.
"He will have to lead. There's no option," he said.
Congress does not have a clear succession plan.
The CWC is comprised mainly of members who are close to the Gandhi family and are less inclined to find another leader, another Congress official said.
"The CWC is supposed to appoint the Congress president, but the Congress president has appointed the CWC," the official said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
While the CWC has not begun the official process of finding the next leader, 68-year-old Gehlot is among the potential frontrunners, according to three other party officials.
Mallikarjun Kharge, 76, a former Congress leader in parliament, is also a possible candidate, one of the three officials said.
Both men are part of the party's entrenched old guard, reflecting its inability to promote younger leaders, which some officials identified as a major reason for the 2019 general election defeat.
"This is the time to take tough decisions," the party official said.
'Rahul continues to be our leader'
Congress leaders on Wednesday said even though Rahul Gandhi had resigned as the party president, he continued to be their leader and would always be the "voice of the party's workers".
"We request him to take back his resignation because we know his struggle," Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot said.
"It is very sad to see him quit as he put in enormous effort and at one point, we felt he caught the pulse and we saw a return of the Congress. Even though he has quit as the Congress president, he continues to be our leader. Reluctantly we have to accept it. If he has announced it, his advice sadly has to be followed. We will put our heads together and do our best," former Union minister and senior party leader Salman Khurshid said.
Former Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken said even after his resignation, Gandhi would remain the voice of the party's workers.
"We are proud to have @RahulGandhi ji as our leader! Congress president or not, he would always be the voice of millions of Congress workers and those who believe in its ideology! Rahul ji has taken a right decision-and we support him," he said in a tweet.
