Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury offered to resign from his position on Sunday after the party’s Central Committee accepted his predecessor Prakash Karat’s strategy to not ally with the Congress for the 2019 elections, The Indian Express reported.

The CPI(M) Central Committee rejected the proposal Yechury had presented in a 55-31 vote. “I am here as the general secretary of the CPI(M) because the party PB [politburo] and the Central Committee said I should be the general secretary of the CPI(M),” he later told the media at a press conference at the West Bengal CPI(M) headquarters in Kolkata.

The CPI(M) will make the final decision on adopting the proposal at the party congress in Hyderabad in April, The Times of India reported. “That will be the party’s political line for the next three years,” Yechury said.

The Indian Express quoted unidentified CPI(M) leaders as saying that the “real battle” would be fought there, and the general secretary, along with the West Bengal unit, will push to defeat the proposal of the Prakash Karat faction.