



Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times





On Saturday, India’s Congress party rejected an offer from party leader Rahul Gandhi to step down from his position. The offer of resignation came days after Congress faced a humiliating defeat in the 2019 Indian general election. In the election, the United Progressive Alliance, which is a coalition of parties led by Congress, only picked up 91 out of the 542 seats. After a meeting was held by the Congress party, spokesperson for Congress said to reporters “We need Rahul Gandhi to guide us in these challenging times.”





The humiliating defeat means that the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, will serve a second term. Modi’s party, the BJP, lead a coalition that picked up 352 seats in the Indian parliament. This is despite high unemployment in the country and questionable decisions by the Prime Minister in his first term, such as the demonetization of the 500 and 1000 rupee banknotes.