Venugopal’s ‘resignation offer’ rejected by Rahul

New Delhi: After the back to back electoral loses and particularly after the Maharashtra electoral debacle of the Congress party, the Organisation General Secretary KC Venugopal, according to sources, had offered to resign but the Congress’ supreme leader Rahul Gandhi had declined to accept it.
A party insider said, “Venugopal may have offered the resignation to both Rahul Gandhi and the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge but it was declined. Had Kharge been working independently he would have accepted his resignation. But he does not have much power in the organisation. After Rahul Gandhi, it is KC Venugopal who calls the shots.”
Moreover, Under KC Venugopal’s tenure as Congress General Secretary (Organisation) since January 2019, the grand old party has faced significant electoral losses in most of the elections it contested. Out of approximately 40 elections held during his reign (Lok Sabha and state assemblies) as GSO, Congress has managed to win only three on its own (with four more in alliances). This means the party lost over 80% of the elections contested during his leadership.
There were, according to experts, overt factors which had contributed to these losses like weak organisational coordination, poor candidate selection, and internal divisions. However, despite the back to back setbacks, Venugopal continues to be powerfully positioned in his role due to his close association with Rahul Gandhi.
A political observer said, “Whenever Rahul Gandhi comes for meeting or leaves from meeting, he would always call Venugopal repeatedly like where is Venu, call Venu etc.”
Subsequently, due to his poor performance, a section of leaders in Congress are critical to the functioning of Venugopal and suggest that the one with such a position (of Organisation General Secretary) should be invested in how to fix up the cracks in the organisation and not ready to accompany Rahul Gandhi everytime he visits places. Therefore his continuation in such a powerrpacked role would worsen the functioning of Congress’ administrative hierarchy.
A senior CWC member said, “Rahul Gandhi is the Leader of Opposition, someone who needs to take up the issues of people and bring the attention of the ruling party to the problems our country is facing. Now who is KC Venugopal? Is he Rahul Gandhi’s personal secretary? If he is accompanying him regularly and the organisation is going through troubles then his accompanying him is questionable. Why? Because he is someone who has to handle it, that is the role of the organisation general secretary.”
He added, “There have been so many elections where it was expected that the Congress party is winning but not only did they lose they lost it badly, who should take responsibility of that? It is KC Venugopal. When the top leadership will take responsibility only then the other office bearers heading top positions will take responsibility.”
Another senior leader said, since the party is losing frequently, he has become a subject of discussion within the Congress. But it is Rahul Gandhi who has been satisfied with him, whether he has delivered or he has not delivered.
A senior Congress leader said, “We think Rahul Gandhi believes the electoral losses as natural disasters for the Congress and therefore he does not hold any Congress leader responsible after elections. He thinks of it as a will of God. That is why there are no replacements if someone does not perform.”