New Delhi: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is upset over the Rajasthan rebellion and will review the issue of a new chief minister as well as the party president’s election, sources said on Monday. “She is upset over the response of the Ashok Gehlot camp over choosing a new chief minister in Rajasthan. She may even have a rethink over Gehlot’s candidature for the top party post,” a senior AICC functionary said on condition of anonymity.
“The Congress chief had expected a smooth transition of power in the state as well as the election for the next party chief,” he said. Sonia Gandhi, sources said, has summoned both Mallikarjun Kharge as well as AICC in charge of Rajasthan Ajay Maken back to Delhi where she would discuss the emerging situation along with senior leaders.
The party chief has also asked AICC general secretary in charge of Organization KC Venugopal to attend the meeting. Kharge, the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, was deployed by Sonia Gandhi to Jaipur on Sunday to obtain feedback from the MLAs over who should be the next chief minister. However, even before the informal interaction could take place, a rebellion of sorts surfaced as over 90 MLAs belonging to the Gehlot camp threatened to resign.
The Gehlot camp fears the appointment of rival Sachin Pilot as the next chief minister and wants someone who is backed by the veteran to get the top government post. Gehlot explained the situation as the anger of the lawmakers but for the AICC it seemed like a show of strength.
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This forced Kharge and Maken to defer their meeting with the MLAs but they still attempted to do fire-fighting by bringing Gehlot and Pilot together to work out a peace formula late Sunday night. “It is a case of indiscipline prima facie. We will submit a report to the Congress president,” Maken said.
“Their condition was if you want to pass a resolution authorizing the Congress president to choose the next chief minister, do it after Oct 19, the day results for the party chief would be out. We said how could it be possible as it would be a conflict of interest as Gehlot would take a call on the issue as party chief,” Maken said.
After Sonia Gandhi had asked Gehlot to file papers for the post of next Congress president, she had expected that Pilot could be given charge of the state a year ahead of the 2023 assembly polls. “But, the response from the MLAs shocked the AICC observer,” said a senior AICC functionary.
As a result, while the party chief may decide on a neutral face to head the state government, Gehlot’s candidature for the top party post may also be reviewed and a new person may be chosen for the key responsibility. Gehlot had been a Gandhi family loyalist all along and was chosen as a candidate for the next party chief’s polls but the high command is worried if such a person would be suitable to helm the party affairs at the national level, said the party insiders.
AICC general secretary in charge of Delhi Shakti Sinh Gohil tried to duck questions related to the Rajasthan developments saying the state was not under his charge but did not fail to give a hint of what is going on in the mind of the party high command. “We have internal democracy and discipline in the party. But there is a fine line dividing internal democracy and indiscipline,” Gohil said.
