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Rahul Gandhi, President of the Congress Party, surrounded by his mother Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi, May 25, 2019. REUTERS / Altaf Hussain

The Congress party, which has headed most governments since India's independence, suffered a stinging defeat in the legislative elections, earning less than 10 percent of the seats in the lower house. The party's president, Rahul Gandhi, resigned on Saturday, May 25 at the meeting of his executive committee, but was turned down.

With our correspondent in New Delhi, Sébastien Farcis

The party of Congress is in full introspection. In the last legislative elections, the center-left party led by the Nehru-Gandhi family for four generations has failed to offer a credible alternative to Narandra Modi's BJP, which has been criticized. The party's president, Rahul Gandhi, resigned on Saturday, May 25 at the meeting of his executive committee, but was turned down.

► Read: India: new mandate and overwhelming victory for Narendra Modi

Rahul Gandhi, the president of Congress, has stubbornly for the last six months to treat Narendra Modi as a thief and corrupt, shouting the embezzlement of millions of euros when buying Rafale fighter to France. But he never presented any evidence of these accusations and his attacks fell flat. Above all, he tackled this very popular Prime Minister head on without offering any vision for the country, apart from a guaranteed minimum income promise for the poor. Remedy needed, but who did not convince.

The Congress thus ends, for the second consecutive term, with less than 10% of the seats in the Assembly. A terrible failure for the traditional training of India. The resignation of Rahul Gandhi, refused by the executive committee led by his mother, reveals the deep crisis of this party in decline, but struggling to renew itself.

" They are both depressed, depressed and arrogant and they have been during this campaign. It's a pretty disastrous combination. The Congress Party knows it can not do without the banks. And thus getting rid of Gandhi is to be completely scuttled and to plunge into the unknown, "analyzes Gilles Verniers, professor of political science at Ashoka University, New Delhi.

Two regional leaders of the Congress, who do not belong to the Gandhi clan, have also resigned. Nobody retained them.