If Rahul Gandhi gave a tongue-lashing to party leaders at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee on May 25, before offering to quit as Congress president, it was now his turn to get an earful from the party.

Though the tone and tenor of the members one of cajoling, asking him to stick to the top party post, it was Rahul's turn to hear the views of the party leaders before turning down their request to withdraw the resignation.

“Sir, here is a patient who needs urgent treatment from an allopathic doctor. You are the only one around. And now you are saying get a veterinary doctor to treat the patient? How will this work out,” Srinivas B V, the newly-appointed interim president of the Indian Youth Congress, said at the CWC meeting on Saturday.

Srinivas' veterinary doctor analogy left the CWC members in splits.

Other members also asked Rahul to reconsider his resignation offer stressing that the party needed him to lead the ideological fight against the RSS-BJP.

At one point, when former Congress president Sonia Gandhi referred to media reports about presidential hopefuls, the leaders burst out saying they were not interested in the top party post but wanted Rahul to continue.

The names of Mukul Wasnik, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot were doing the rounds as possible successors to Rahul. Kharge, Scindia and Wasnik are members of the CWC.

“The CWC members in the meeting said that the voice of a strong Opposition needs to be heard and that (voice) is of Rahul Gandhi,” Congress' chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

He said Rahul thanked the CWC members for their confidence in him but stuck to his decision to step down as party president.