Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 27: Even as the supporters of the Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot remained defiant unwilling to give way to his bete noir Sachin Pilot to succeed him, a submissive Congress high command is learnt to be reaching out to Gehlot to smoothen up things and save the party government in the state.
Party sources said senior Congress leaders Ambika Soni and Anand Sharma, after a meeting with interim president Sonia Gandhi, spoke with Ashok Gehlot to “resolve the crisis that has been created.”
This is even as Sachin Pilot reached Delhi for a possible meeting with Mrs Gandhi and other Gandhi family members to present his side of the crisis to block his passage to the chief ministership promised years ago by the Gandhi siblings as and when Gehlot was moved out of the office.
The intermediates are learnt to have arrived at a solution that Gehlot would meet Mrs Gandhi soon and three or four of his loyal leaders would be “cautioned” for their role in organising the rebellion which has not only humiliated the observers sent by the party president but has also exposed to the outside world that the Gandhis are losing grip over the party.
The solution was reached because Gehlot at his meeting with the high command observers Ajay Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday night had claimed that he was not aware about the development and played no role in his supporters’ rebellion. This would also keep the option open for his contesting for the Congress presidential elections which was considered dim after the open show of strength by his supporters on Sunday.
More than 90 of his supporters had submitted their resignations to the speaker to thwart the possibility of Sachin Pilot hoisted as the chief minister before Gehlot filed his nomination for the Congress presidential elections. For the second time, as Gehlot had proved during Pilot’s rebellion in 2020, that his bete noir had enjoyed support of no more than 21 MLAs as against 102 in his camp.
Ashok Gehlot, 71, is “still in contention for the post of Congress president and not ruled out”, top party sources said on Tuesday after Sunday’s unsavoury developments in Jaipur had said otherwise.
At the core of the rebellion was Gehlot’s refusal to give up the post of Rajasthan Chief Minister, which has annoyed the leadership. Gehlot had agreed to quit as Chief Minister after Rahul Gandhi made it clear that he would not be allowed a double role, in line with the Congress’s “one person, one post” policy but was unwilling to pave the way for his staunch rival Pilot. His supporters had put the condition that in the event of Rajasthan getting a new chief minister, the high command must select a person from amongst 102 in the Gehlot amp and not Pilot or anyone from his camp. Although three ministers close to him coordinated the rebellion, Gehlot denied any part in it, citing his visit to a shrine near the India-Pakistan border that morning where there was no phone reception. “Nothing is in my hands. The MLAs are angry,” he told the central leadership.
No one in Delhi believed that 92 MLAs could threaten mass resignation without Gehlot’s active support and encouragement. Though Gehlot has apologised, the Congress leadership has taken a “serious view” of indiscipline by one of its senior most leaders.
Sachin Pilot — at the centre of the huge turmoil in the party’s Rajasthan unit — arrived in Delhi seeking a meeting with Sonia Gandhi. Sources said Pilot has sought an appointment with Mrs Gandhi, which is yet to be granted. Sources close to him have said no meeting has been fixed so far.
With the pro-Gehlot senior minister Shantilal Dhariwal openly accusing the high command observers of “playing a partisan role to favour Sachin Pilot,” Mrs Gandhi’s image has suffered serious erosion in the Rajasthan crisis as she is also been seen as “partisan” contrary to the leadership principle that those who occupy the highest office should be seen as neutral.
Continuing their defiance several senior ministers and MLAs met Gehlot at his residence in Jaipur and were openly talked about blocking the passage for Pilot. But Pilot has quashed reports of him telling the Congress high command that Gehlot should not remain the chief minister if he decides to run for the party presidential polls, and that it was his responsibility to bring the MLAs together. The ex-deputy CM called the news report “false.”
