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poliTiCs
eleCTion 2018

fissures in the punjab
congress deepen as rift
between capt amarinder
and Sidhu widens

‘to be oR not to be’ “Rahul ji was, is and will remain the Congress president. We have no
While all this is going on, Chief Spokesperson of doubt about it,” Randeep Surjewala told reporters when asked about
Congress, Randeep Surjewala said “Rahul Gandhi was, is, and will re- the situation arising out of Rahul Gandhi’s offer to resign.
main the Congress president”. This comes after days of uncertainty Senior leaders Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjuna Kharge, Ghulam Nabi
over Rahul Gandhi’s offer to quit the post. Randeep Surjewala made Azad, P Chidambaram, KC Venugopal, Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh and
the remarks after senior Congress leaders met in New Delhi infor- Anand Sharma were present in the meeting. All the leaders present
mally under the guidance of AK Antony and discussed the party’s in the meeting were members of the core group formed for the Lok
strategy and preparation for the upcoming assembly elections in Sabha polls.
Haryana, Jammu, and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. Rahul However, Randeep Surjewala clarified that contrary to specula-
Gandhi had offered to quit as party chief during a meeting of the tion in the media there was no core group now as all election-related
Congress Working Committee on May 25 which was called to ana- committees ceased to exist. Till a finality is announced, the Shake-
lyze the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls, in which it spearean “to be or not to be, that is the question” will continue to be
managed to win just 52 seats. heard in political circles and power corridors.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) had unanimously reject-
ed his offer to quit but Rahul Gandhi was apparently firm on his stand. letters@tehelka.com

tehelka / 30 june 2019 19 www.tehelka.com