Rahul Gandhi to meet top Congress leaders amid crisis over his decision to step down as party president

Rahul Gandhi will meet senior Congress leaders at his residence at 4:30 pm after attempts by the party to get him to change his mind about quitting as party president after the party's dismal show at the national election.

Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi will meet senior Congress leaders at his residence at 4:30 pm after attempts by the senior party leaders to get him to change his mind about stepping down as party president following INC's dismal show at the national election. Rahul Gandhi's sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot were among visitors to his home in Delhi on Tuesday morning. Rahul Gandhi has strongly expressed his desire to quit from the party's top position post INC's debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but the Congress Working Committee rejected his proposal at a meeting on Saturday. The party's top decision-making body will meet again this week, say sources, if Rahul Gandhi does not change his mind. "He will not change his mind, though I want him to continue," said Tarun Gogoi, a member of the Congress Working Committee. Mr Gogoi said Rahul Gandhi was extremely upset with senior leaders of the party. "He was not happy with some of our seniors. The way many senior leaders behaved, he felt they should have worked hard but they were not up to his expectations," the former Assam Chief Minister told NDTV. He said Rahul Gandhi was asked whether a "general should run away". "He said I am not running away. I will fight even more. If I am not looking after the Congress party, then I can fight the ideology," Mr Gogoi revealed. On Monday, Rahul Gandhi, 48, told two Congress leaders, Ahmed Patel and KC Venugopal, to look for his replacement, according to sources. Ahmed Patel, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi's mother Sonia Gandhi, denied it and said it was a meeting for "routine administrative work". Significantly, Rahul Gandhi refused to meet any other meeting through the day. Not even Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, a veteran whose obsessive campaigning for his son, even at the cost of the party, was reportedly called out by Rahul Gandhi. "He as party president has every right to point out our shortcomings during the campaign," said Mr Gehlot