India’s Congress Party Seeks to Reorganize After Election Rout

(Bloomberg) -- The Indian National Congress authorized its President Rahul Gandhi to reorganize the party, while rejecting his offer of resignation following its rout in the recent elections.

The Congress Working Committee, the top decision-making body of the party, rejected Gandhi’s resignation offer “unanimously” and requested him to undertake “a complete overhaul and detailed restructuring at every level of the party,” its spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters in New Delhi. “A plan to this effect shall come into force at the earliest.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi clinched a second five-year term, with his Bharatiya Janata Party winning 303 of the 543 parliamentary seats to secure a single-party majority. The Congress won 52 seats, which was only a few more seats than it took in 2014.

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