Rahul Gandhi resigns as leader of Indian opposition Congress party after disastrous election

Rahul Gandhi has resigned as the leader of India's main opposition party, saying he took responsibility for a disastrous general election performance that saw Narendra Modi sweep to victory for a second term.

Mr Gandhi had offered to resign as president of the Congress party the day after the result was announced on 23 May, but party officials had hoped to convince him to stay.

Congress won just 52 parliamentary seats in the election to the BJP's 303. The only performance worse than that in Congress's history since independence was in 2014, when it took 44 seats and Mr Gandhi was again the face of the party.

In an open letter, Mr Gandhi said it had been "an honour for me to serve the Congress Party, whose values and ideals have served as the lifeblood of our beautiful nation".

By contrast, he accused Mr Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of launching an "attack on our country and our cherished constitution", saying: "I have no hatred or anger towards the BJP but every living cell in my body instictively resists their idea of India."

And Mr Gandhi suggested the vote had not been "a free and fair election", saying the BJP had undermined the Indian press, judiciary and election commission. "We didn't fight a political party in the 2019 election. Rather, we fought the entire machinery of the Indian state," he said.

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