Sonia, Rahul may offer to resign from party on Monday

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi may offer to resign from the positions at a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting scheduled for Monday, owning up the moral responsibility for the party's drubbing at the Lok Sabha polls, party sources said. But, any such offers will be primarily aimed at preempting possible blame-games within the party, and in all likelihood the CWC will unanimously appeal to the Gandhis to withdraw their resignations, people familiar with the way the party works said.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leaders already started making efforts to deflect any likely attacks aimed at the party's top two leaders, saying that the responsibility should be shared collectively. "We in the Congress party failed to rise to respond to the new level of aspirations the people have," senior Congress leader Kamal Nath told the media here.

Sources said in the event of the party president and vice president offering their resignations, it could prompt most of the AICC general secretaries and CWC members to offer theirs too.

In the past, such choreographed moves were enacted by Congress presidents and their core team to secure the mandate for the complete revamp of the CWC – by accepting the resignations of those who need to be removed and rejecting the offers from those who would continue.

There are already whispers in the party circles that some AICC functionaries such as Mohan Prakah, CP Joshi and Madhusudan Mistry – known as key advisers of Rahul Gandhi – may be offering their resignations too. After the party defeat, there has been muted criticism of the manner in which Team Rahul has been trying to be a parallel setup within the Congress establishment.

Congress chief ministers Tarun Gogoi in Assam and Prithviraj Chavan of Maharashtra have also offered to quit. There are indications that more Congress chief ministers and presidents in the states where the party was routed too could join the queue.