New Delhi

Parliament’s budget session started today, but don’t expect you will find Rahul Gandhi attending it! He is not going to be seen in parliament at least for a week or son. That’s because he has taken leave from party work for a few days.

The Congress vice president wanted “some time to reflect on recent events and future course of the party,” after Congress failed to win a single seat in Delhi elections.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has gone on a sabbatical “for a few weeks” to reflect upon recent events and the future of the party that was completely wiped out in the Delhi Assembly elections capping a string of losses.

Mr. Gandhi has been “granted leave of absence for a few weeks after which he will return and resume his active participation in the affairs of the Congress party”, party sources said.

They said he has “requested Congress president Sonia Gandhi for some time to reflect on recent events and future course of the party”.

He believes that the direction that the party adopts at the upcoming AICC session will be of crucial importance for its future and he wishes to prepare for it, the sources said.

Congress has been performing badly at the hustings, which started with the Lok Sabha elections last year and continued in the Assembly elections in various states including Delhi recently.

The debacle in Delhi, where Congress failed to get even one seat in the 70-member House, was more stunning as the party had ruled the state for 15 years till December 2013.

The AICC session is expected in early April in Bengaluru and media reports have suggested that Mr. Gandhi could be made the party chief on that occasion.

With inputs from PTI