Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday said veteran party leader Mallikarjun Kharge has the experience to strengthen the Congress and would emerge as a clear winner in the party presidential poll, while his rival in the race Shashi Tharoor belongs to the "elite class". Kharge has a long political experience.
He has a clean heart, he comes from the Dalit community and (Kharge contesting election) is being welcomed everywhere, he told reporters after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at the secretariat here. Gehlot, one of the proposers of Kharge, said Tharoor is also a good man and has good thoughts but he is from the elite class.
"Tharoor is a class apart; he is from elite class but the kind of experience which is needed to strengthen the party at booth, block and district levels, that is with Kharge and cannot be compared to Shashi Tharoor," he said. "Therefore, it will naturally be a one-sided contest for Kharge, he said.
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Meanwhile, taking a veiled dig at Sachin Pilot over the crisis in Gehlot said that the reason behind such resentment among Congress MLAs against over the name of a new Chief Minister in the state.
Gehlot also said that usually when a new Chief Minister is appointed 80 to 90 per cent of MLAs switch sides, but that was not the case in Rajasthan. "When a chief minister is changed, 80-90 per cent (MLAs) leave him and switch sides. They turn to the new candidate. I too don't consider it wrong. But it was a new case in Rajasthan where the MLAs got agitated just in the name of the new chief minister, Gehlot told reporters after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at the secretariat.
"I was in Jaisalmer. I could not guess but the MLAs sensed who was going to be the new chief minister," he added. Asked whether there is a possibility of the Chief Minister being changed in Rajasthan, Gehlot said that it was for the party High Command to take a call on the issue.
He also said that he had informed interim party president Sonia Gandhi and Ajay Maken that he is ready to step down as the Chief Minister. "I had already conveyed to madam (Sonia Gandhi) and Ajay Maken in August that it is not necessary that I should be the chief minister. I told them that I am ready to withdraw as CM. I said I will support and campaign because it should be our aim to revive the Congress party," said Gehlot.
Taking a veiled dig at Maken over the crisis in Rajasthan Congress, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday said that he had told Maken to conduct a survey to find out under whose leadership Congress will retain power in the State.
Gehlot also said that for the first time in his 50-year-long political career he has failed to get a "one-line resolution passed" adding that he had apologized to Sonia Gandhi for his failure. As for the candidature of Mallikarjun Kharge for the post of Congress president, Gehlot said that he is an "excellent candidate" as he is associated with the party organization and has decades of experience.
" It will be a one-sided victory for Kharge," said Gehlot. He also said that if Kharge gets elected, Congress will get a Dalit president after 50 years. Further indicating that he was not very optimistic about the prospect of Shashi Tharoor for the top post in the party, Gehlot said that he cannot be compared with Kharge. " Tharoor is from the elite class," he said.
