Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, April 21: With the Rajasthan state Assembly elections just about a year away, the Congress may be heading for yet another group clash with the young leader Sachin Pilot reopening his demand for the top job and the incumbent chief minister Ashok Gehlot hell-bent not to yield even an inch to his rival in the party.
Pilot, who hoped for the chief minister’s post before the 2018 elections but was disappointed by the party high command, called on the party national interim president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Thursday and discussed the party’s leadership issue in Rajasthan.
According to reports, Pilot expressed his fervent desire to become Chief Minister of his home state leading it to the elections or an assurance and projection to get the job if the party retained power. “I talked about how we need to break the trend and return to power in Rajasthan,” Sachin Pilot said after the meeting, referring to next year’s elections in the state.
While induction of the election strategist Prashant Kishor in the Congress was expected to be decided after his meeting with Sonia Gandhi on Friday, the third between the two in a week, the blueprint he has presented to the party about the measures he recommended for the revival of the Congress also included the steps required to be taken for the Rajasthan elections next year.
With the Rajasthan showing a set pattern of change of the government in every elections, the ruling Congress, with its shrinking national footprint, faces the challenge of beating Rajasthan’s trend of the incumbent losing elections. Sachin Pilot’s future role in Rajasthan was discussed in the meeting, sources said. The last posts he held were those of Rajasthan Congress chief and Deputy Chief Minister, both of which he lost when he rebelled in 2020.
“I have talked about the future of the Congress and how to take it forward in the state of Rajasthan…how we need to break the trend and return to power. Certain steps need to be taken to further strengthen the party,” he told reporters. The political call on his role and responsibilities will be taken by the Congress president, sources said. The decision about Pilot may be weighed against the measures suggested by Kishor depending on the status the poll strategist was given in the party if he joined the Congress. The party sources claims that Kishor is keen to join the Congress and has not put any condition for it.
Asked whether he would accept a national role instead of the top post in Rajasthan, with Ashok Gehlot unlikely to yield, Sachin Pilot said: “I have always made it clear to play my part in any role given but I would definitely like to focus on my state Rajasthan.” Today’s meeting follows a series of high profile exits from the Congress over the last two years. In fact, he is almost the last of once close aides of Rahul Gandhi to be still in the Congress after the departure to the BJP of leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and RPN Singh.
Sachin Pilot has made it clear to the Gandhis that he is keen to become Chief Minister of Rajasthan; he had fought for the top job when the Congress won the 2018 Rajasthan election but was persuaded to settle for the post of Ashok Gehlot’s deputy. Two years later, he stormed to Delhi complaining about a raw deal, and camped with a group of 18 MLAs who backed him, for weeks, before being persuaded to drop his rebellion and save the Gehlot’s government from the brink of collapse.
Pilot held a meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra a few days ago, sources say. In 2020, the Gandhis were able to coax him out of his rebellion with a promise to look into his grievances and to give his supporters a better share in the party and the Rajasthan government. The changes finally materalised more than a year later when Pilot threatened with another rebellion. Ashok Gehlot, seen to be resistant to any change that could give Pilot more power, finally shuffled his cabinet late last year to accommodate his rival’s supporters but Pilot himself returned a cropper.
Kishor’s “revival plan” and strategy to win upcoming polls in states as well as the 2024 general election, has been circulated among select Congress leaders, who have been asked for their feedback both on the plan and on Prashant Kishor possibly joining the Congress. While Prashant Kishor’s Congress 2.0 plan has not been revealed, it is learnt that it has gone on listing reasons for the party’s big downslide over the years, especially from 1984 to 2019. Among them was the failure to capitalise on legacy and achievements, structural weaknesses and lack of connect with the masses.
For the “Reincarnation of the Congress”, the leadership needs to rebuild the party and democratise it, said Kishor’s plan. It is learnt that he has suggested Sonia Gandhi as Congress president with a “Non-Gandhi” Working President or Vice President, and Rahul Gandhi as Parliamentary Board chief.
This was step 1 of five strategic decisions that the Congress has to take, the plan said. The others are, to sort out alliances, reclaim the party’s founding tenets, creating an army of grassroots leaders and foot-soldiers and creating an ecosystem of “supporting media and digital propagation”. Among other measures suggested by the strategist were: The creation of a new Congress for the masses, protecting its values and core principles, destroying a sense of entitlement and sycophancy, fixing the alliance conundrum, ‘one Family, one Ticket’, to counter prevalent nepotism, reconstituting organisational bodies via elections across all levels, fixed term, fixed tenures for all posts including Congress President and Congress Working Committee, identify and meaningfully engage 15,000 grassroots leaders and activate one crore foot soldiers across India, and a federation of 200+ like-minded influencers, activists and civil society members to: Coordinate Action, Raise Dissent and Build Synergy.
The Congress claims the recommendations are from a year ago, when talks between the Gandhis and the strategist began, soon after Mamata Banerjee won a huge victory in Bengal. She had roped in Prashant Kishor for her Bengal campaign. After the talks fell through, reportedly over disagreements on the way forward, the Congress enlisted the help of one of Kishor’s top aides, Sunil Kanugolu. The talks resumed after the Congress’ election defeats in five key states in February-March, which threw the party’s survival in doubt.