Rahul Gandhi announced on Wednesday that he has resigned as the Congress President and that he was to blame for the party’s rout in the Lok Sabha elections where it could win only 52 of the 542 seats.

In an open letter made public on his Twitter account, Gandhi, son of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, also said that the BJP’s sweeping election win proved that the RSS’ aim of capturing the country’s institutional structure was now complete.

“As President of the Congress party, I am responsible for the loss of the 2019 election. Accountability is critical for the future growth of our party,” he said in a letter that was put on his Twitter account which no longer described him as the Congress President.

“It is for this reason that I have resigned as Congress President.”

The letter said: “Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019.

“It would be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as President of the party.”

Gandhi said that while it was important for someone new to lead the Congress, “it would not be correct for me to select that person”.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi told reporters: “I have already submitted my resignation and I am no longer the party chief.

“The Congress Working Committee should convene a meeting at the earliest and decide on a new party chief.”

Gandhi announced on May 25, two days after the Lok Sabha election results became known, that he would resign as the Congress chief after the party was drubbed. Gandhi was himself defeated in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh but won from Wayanad in Kerala.

In his four-page letter, Gandhi said the RSS, the BJP’s ideological parent, had succeeded in capturing the country’s institutional structure.

He sought to question the role of the Election Commission in the 2019 Lok Sabha battle.

“A free and fair election requires the neutrality of a country’s institutions — an election cannot be fair without arbiters, a free press, an independent judiciary and a transparent Election Commission that is objective and neutral.

“Nor can an election be free if only one party has a complete monopoly on financial resources.”

Gandhi said: “We didn’t fight a political party in the election. Rather, we fought the entire machinery of the Indian state, every institution of which was marshalled against the opposition.

“It is now crystal clear that our once cherished institutional neutrality no longer exists in India..”

“There is a real danger that from now on, elections will go from being a determinant of India’s future to a mere ritual.”

Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory “does not negate the breath of corruption allegations against him, no amount of money and propaganda can ever hide the light of the truth”.

He said he would remain “a loyal soldier of the Congress” and “a devoted son of India”.

The Congress on Saturday said that it will not formally stake claim for the post of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha as it is two seats short of the required number of 54.

The party also said that Rahul Gandhi will continue to be the Congress President.

According to the rules, a party needs to have 10 per cent of 545 members, the total strength of the Lok Sabha, to qualify for the post of Leader of Opposition, which is a Cabinet-rank position. But the Congress has got only 52 members in the Lower House, two short of the required numbers.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said: “We will not stake claim for the post of LoP in the Lok Sabha as we are two short of the 54 members required for the status. However, the onus also lies with the government… whether it wants to designate a party formally as the principal opposition.”

Even in the previous Lok Sabha, the leader of Congress in the House, Mallikarjun Kharge, was not granted the status of Leader of Opposition as the party had won only 44 seats in the 2014 general elections.

When asked if the party was looking at a merger with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Surjewala said that he had no information about any such merger between the two parties.

When asked if the Congress could stake claim for the LoP status as an Opposition block along with other opposition parties, he said, “The newly-elected Parliamentary party will decide the party’s strategy.”

The Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) met earlier in the day for the first time after the Lok Sabha elections where UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi was elected the leader of the Congress parliamentarians.

However, the suspense over the post of leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha continues. The party has authorised Sonia Gandhi to take a decision on this matter.

When asked if Rahul Gandhi was still insisting to step down from the post of Congress President, Surjewala said: “Rahul Gandhi continues to be the Congress President. The naysayers will say what they have to. The media has to wait rather than trying to jump to any conclusion. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has urged him (Rahul Gandhi) to continue as the party President.”

When asked about nationalism and other important issues which were used by the BJP to consolidate support ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Surjewala pointed fingers at Doklam, where Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a two-month standoff in 2017.

“Even today Chinese army is deployed in Doklam just 10 metres from the Indian post where a road has been constructed. It is a diplomatic failure on the part of the Indian government,” he said.

In the wake of the electoral debacle, the Congress appeared to be in a crisis on Monday with resignations of its leaders piling up and the leadership planning to crack the whip.

Amid the shock in the party, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday met party treasurer Ahmed Patel and general secretary K. C. Venugopal.

Patel sought to scotch speculation that they had gone to meet Gandhi in the context of Congress Working Committee meeting which rejected his offer to resign.

He said meeting with Gandhi was for routine administrative work.

“I had sought time before the CWC to meet the Congress President to discuss routine administrative work. The meeting today was in that context. All other speculation is incorrect and baseless,” Patel said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, three more state party chiefs have tendered their resignations, taking the total number to six.

Congress party chiefs of Jharkhand, Assam and Punjab have also resigned in addition to those from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. Karnataka Pradesh Campaign Committee chairman H. K. Patil has also resigned.

Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jhakar, who was the sitting MP from Gurdaspur, sent his resignation to Congress President Rahul Gandhi taking moral responsibility for losing to actor Sunny Deol from the seat. The Congress has generally done well in Punjab winning eight of 13 seats.

Jharkhand Congress chief Ajoy Kumar has also tendered his resignation. The party won only one seat in the state where it had an alliance with the JMM, RJD and other parties.

While the party won Singhbhum seat, it lost Khunti by only 1,445 votes and Lohardaga by 10,363 votes.

The party’s Assam unit chief Ripun Bora also wrote to Gandhi taking moral responsibility for the party not being able to increase its tally from its previous tally of three seats. He has said in his letter that Gandhi may choose to replace him.

Maharashtra unit chief Ashok Chavan, Uttar Pradesh unit chief Raj Babbar and Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik have already sent their resignations.

Yogendra Misra, the district Congress chief in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh has also sent his resignation, owning moral responsibility for Rahul Gandhi’s defeat from Amethi.

Gandhi had also offered to resign taking moral responsibility for the party’s defeat but the Congress Working Committee unanimously rejected the offer.