As Congress President Rahul Gandhi offers his resignation; Here's a look at his political career since 2004

After a major defeat of Congress in 2019 General elections, Congress Party President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday offered his resignation from the post at CWC meeting

Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi, who is currently heading the top post in country’s second biggest political party, had his entry into politics 15 years ago in March 2004. Gandhi entered politics by announcing that he would contest the May 2004 elections, standing from his father's former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha. 2004 The seat which was so far held by his mother, and current UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, transferred her constituency to Rae Bareli. Gandhi’s entry into active politics came at a time when Congress wasn’t doing well in the state with highest number of Lok Sabha seats, as the party held only 10 of the 80 seats at that time. 2007 In year 2007, Gandhi was was a prominent face in the Congress’ campaign for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections; Congress, however, won only 22 of the 403 seats with 8.53% of votes. Later, in September 2007, a reshuffle of the party secretariat took place, where Gandhi was appointed as General Secretary of All India Congress Committee and was also given charge of Indian Youth Congress and National Students Union of India. 2008 In 2008, with UPA government in centre, senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily stated Rahul as ‘PM idea’. 2009 In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi retained his Amethi seat by defeating his nearest rival by a margin of over 370,000 votes. Gandhi was credited with the Congress revival in Uttar Pradesh where they won 21 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats. 2012 Rahul Gandhi campaigned during the 2012 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh election for almost two months, where he held 200 rallies. However Congress ranked as the fourth party in the state, winning 28 seats, an increase of six seats from the previous polls. He was elevated to the position of the vice-president of the party in January 2013. 2014 Gandhi contested the Indian general election, 2014 from his constituency, Amethi and led the election campaign of his party. Gandhi won the Amethi seat by defeating BJP's Smriti Irani, by a reduced margin of 107,000 votes. Under his leadership, the Indian National Congress suffered its worst ever performance in elections and won only 44 seats compared to 206 seats won previously in the 2009 general election. 2019 Congress fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with Rahul Gandhi as party president. However party once again faced a major defeat, rather worse than 2014 and was able to bag only 52 seats. Gandhi, who contested from both Wayanad and Amethi seats lost to Union Minister Smriti Irani with a huge margin of votes from Amethi. However, he retained Wayanad seat.