NEW DELHI, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Rahul Gandhi, president of India's main opposition Congress party, Wednesday publicly announced his resignation from the party's top post.
"It is an honour for me to serve the Congress party, whose values and ideals have served as the lifeblood of our beautiful nation. I owe the country and my organisation a debt of tremendous gratitude and love," reads the letter posted by Gandhi on social media networking platform.
Admitting responsibility for his party's poor performance in the recently held general elections, Rahul Gandhi urged the party to choose a new leader.
"As president of the Congress party, I'm responsible for the loss of the 2019 elections. Accountability is critical for the future growth of our party. It is for this reason that I have resigned as Congress president," the letter reads further. "While it is important for someone new to lead our party, it would not be correct for me to select that person."
Rahul Gandhi had offered to resign as the party president immediately after the election results came out on a May 25 meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), but it was rejected by the party committee.
CWC is the highest decision-making body of the grand old party of Indian politics.
During the general elections, the Congress party won only 52 seats.
Rahul Gandhi, the fourth generation scion of India's powerful Nehru-Gandhi family, lost from his family bastion Uttar Pradesh's Amethi constituency. However, he won from Kerala's Wayanad.
BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi registered a spectacular victory by winning 303 seats on its own and together with its allies for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) it has strength of 353 lawmakers out of the total 543 in Indian parliament.
