When Chidambaram said the Congress has a fighting chance in Tamil Nadu, Rahul retorted saying the Congress is just an adjunct of the DMK and it is the DMK which is fighting the election. He also reminded former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, as also Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, that the RSS was very well-entrenched in the bureaucracy in both the states. Rahul said he was ready to do whatever the party wanted but sources in both the camps said that remark was not in the context of him returning to the helm. The letter-writers underlined the challenges: two successive general election losses and the movement of youth away from the party. The party has been vanquished in the Hindi heartland and “unless and until there is a revival, there is no hope,” they said. They made it clear that there should be an election for the post of Congress president, to CWC and to posts at all levels.