Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 2: With barely 13 months to go before the Rajasthan state Assembly elections, the ruling Congress in the state is in the boil again with the chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his arch rival Sachin Pilot taking pot shots against each other exposing the disunity within the party set up.
Pilot’s drawing attention of the party high command on Wednesday for action on the notices issued to three Gehlot loyalists last month for the rebellion when the chief minister was tipped to contest for the Congress presidential election leaving the state’s top job to Pilot, is a grim reminder to the party that he would not take the status quo lying low.
And Gehlot hit back asking all partymen to maintain discipline and refrain from making out-of-turn statements. While Gehlot has not left anyone in doubt that under no circumstances he was ready to leave his chair in Rajasthan, the periodic threats from Pilot also raises questions how long he will keep his patience and stay in the party with the party high command repeatedly failing to keep its words to replace Gehlot with him in Rajasthan sooner or later. Gehlot has hit back after rival Sachin Pilot appeared to escalate their long-running feud, flagging the “climate of indecision” in the Congress’s state unit and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s praise for his arch-nemesis.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Alwar, Mr Gehlot urged his party leaders to “maintain discipline” and refrain from making out-of-turn statements. “[Congress general secretary] KC Venugopal has asked not to give statements. We, too, want all leaders to maintain discipline,” he said. The Chief Minister said the party’s focus should be on retaining the government in Rajasthan which votes in about 13 months. “It is our objective to repeat the government. We have given good governance and brought so many schemes in the state, which has never happened before. We have started working towards retaining the state on good governance,” he said.
Gehlot’s statement was in response to Pilot’s dig earlier in the day in what appeared to be a new bid for his taking over as Chief Minister, Mr Pilot said, “It’s time now to end the climate of indecision in Rajasthan.” Quoting Mr Venugopal, he had said a decision on “the Rajasthan situation” will be taken soon which apparently was in reference to the notices issued to three Gehlot supporters following their rebellion on the eve of the Congress presidential elections.
In a swipe directly at Mr Gehlot, he also said it was interesting how Modi praised Mr Gehlot as a “senior chief minister” at a government function in Rajasthan on Tuesday. “That (praise) should not be taken lightly. Everyone knows what happened after the PM praised Ghulam Nabi Azad,” he said. Mr Azad left the party recently.
In July 2020, Mr Pilot had tried to force a promotion from Deputy Chief Minister by sequestering about 20 MLAs in a resort near Delhi. The message was that unless he was given Mr Gehlot’s job, he would break the party. However, his exercise fizzled out because of the modest support he received.
Then, just weeks ago, Mr Gehlot flexed his own political muscle to prove to the Congress that he must not be replaced as Chief Minister. That possibility came about because Sonia Gandhi urged the 71-year-old to replace her as Congress President. Mr Gehlot suggested a dual role – Chief Minister plus Congress President – provoking a public reproach from Rahul Gandhi who cited the party’s ‘one person, one post’ rule.
In response, when the Congress organised a meeting of MLAs in Rajasthan to assess whether a new Chief Minister was needed, Mr Gehlot’s supporters were a no-show, choosing instead to meet separately at a session where they insisted that Mr Gehlot should have veto rights on his replacement, and that Mr Pilot must be declared out of the running.
Mrs Gandhi met with Mr Gehlot a few days later – the delayed meeting was intended to convey the displeasure of the “high command” – and he apologised profusely for the actions of his loyalists. At the time, Mr Pilot was reportedly assured that his time may have finally come. But there’s been no action yet against Mr Gehlot’s team and apparently no progress in the plans to give Mr Pilot a shot at running the home state.
When the Congress won Rajasthan in 2018, Mr Pilot was reportedly told by the Gandhis that he would time-share the Chief Minister’s job with Mr Gehlot, as his senior, getting the first half of the five-year term. When Mr Pilot’s revolt failed, he lost everything and was virtually sidelined taking away from him both the deputy chief ministership and the state Congress president concentrating all the powers in the hands of Gehlot.
For almost a month, there was relative calm in Rajasthan Congress following Venugopal’s September 29 direction to party leaders to refrain from making “public statements against other leaders or about party’s internal matters.” This was preceded by the events of September 25, when scores of MLAs, apparently annoyed over the Congress high command’s “unilateral” decision to opt for a new CM without consulting them. They skipped a legislature party meeting convened by the AICC observers apparently to elect a new leader in place of Gehlot who was tipped to take over as the Congress national president, and submitted their resignation to Assembly Speaker CP Joshi.
However, Gehlot sidestepped this advisory and at least on two occasions attacked Pilot as well as AICC observer Ajay Maken. He also defended the actions of his loyalists and told Mrs Sonia Gandhi point lank that he was not interested in the Congress president’s post unless he was also allowed to keep his Rajasthan job. Through mention of the coming Budget, his face on billboards, road banners, and newspaper ads — partly due to the Investment Summit in October — Gehlot, constantly batting on the front foot, has been asserting that he isn’t going anywhere.
Though Pilot so far has tried to keep his “good boy” image remaining silent in keeping with Venugopal’s advice, he apparently has become restless and wanted to set the ball rolling again now that the party presidential elections are over and the new president has taken charge. With his comments, he has made it amply clear that he will not stand the status quo and the party, under the new leadership, needs to take a call on the notices to three leaders.
The larger message is that there is barely a year left now before the state goes to polls and so the party needs to address the issue of CM now. For Pilot, who has nothing to lose at this point, this is the only glimmer of hope as he doesn’t seem to hold any cards. “We want him as the CM now, and not that Gehlot continues as CM till next year and Pilot is declared as CM face for 2023 polls. This doesn’t work,” said a Pilot loyalist.
For the Pilot camp, continuing with Gehlot as CM and declaring Pilot as CM face next year may take away the anger of the youth towards Gehlot and their sympathy for Pilot. Moreover, the Pilot camp firmly believes that a change in Rajasthan is needed if Congress wants to break the 30-year cycle of change in every election and retain power in 2023.
Rajasthan apparently will be the new Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s more difficult challenges. Kharge needs to come up with a smart solution without damaging the state unit. Having maintained his composure so far, an already restless Pilot may also not be so calm the next time he plans something and whether he will stay in the party if nothing is coming in his way.
