Now, senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily backs Rahul Gandhi's as party president, says 'It's not the question of finding a person outside the family'

Even as another meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has been called to discuss the future course of action and its chief RahuI Gandhi adamant on resigning, senior leader Veerappa Moily came in support of Rahul Gandhi's post as Congress chief.

Taking to Twitter, he said that it was Rahul Gandhi who made the party relevant after its defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He added that Rahul Gandhi took on the right issues to corner BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He further added that there is no question of finding a person outside the family.  

READ: Here's the list of all the Congress leaders who have resigned after party's devastating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections 2019

Meanwhile, in a big development amid turmoil within the Congress party following the 2019 Lok Sabha election results, as per inputs, Rahul Gandhi is insistent on his decision to step down as Congress party president. At the previous CWC meeting, his resignation offer was rejected as the party instead allegedly unanimously asked him to remain and guide them, and even bestowed upon him full authority to overhaul the party. 

Counsel for Rahul Gandhi to not quit as Congress chief has also on Tuesday come from ally Lalu Prasad Yadav who has called the resignation decision suicidal, opining that as soon as a non-Nehru-Gandhi family member takes over the role, they would be painted as a 'puppet' by the BJP. Lalu Prasad also blamed regional parties for not projecting Rahul Gandhi as a Prime Ministerial face as it was required to take on the BJP and Narendra Modi irrespective of the Opposition's seat-share bargaining. 

At the time of publishing, a meeting is underway at Rahul Gandhi's residence, with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia also present and Randeep Surjewala called in.

Since the May 23 results in which the Congress managed to win just 52 seats - six more than its lowest-ever Lok Sabha polls tally in 2014 - the resignations have come in thick and fast, and from all over the country. Congress chiefs of Madhya Pradesh (M.P CM Kamal Nath), Uttar Pradesh (Raj Babbar), Odisha (Niranjan Patnaik), Assam (Ripun Bora), Jharkhand (Dr Ajoy Kumar), Punjab (Sunil Jhakar, on account of his own loss to BJP's Sunny Deol in Gurdaspur) are among the many names that have resigned.

A meeting amid the resignations was also held earlier on Monday as senior leaders KC Venugopal and Ahmed Patel convened at Rahul Gandhi's residence. Turmoil has also erupted in the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka with the Siddaramaiah-led Congress Legislature Party (CLP) set to meet on May 29 to iron out issues.