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Cong prez polls over, focus likely to move back to Rajasthan crisis now: Report
The state has been gripped with political turmoil with loyalists of chief minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy CM Sachin Pilot sparring over speculations that the latter will take over from the CM.
With the Congress presidential elections now over, and Mallikarjun Kharge set to formally take charge for the top job on October 26, the focus of the grand old party is likely to shift to resolving the Rajasthan political crisis, news agency ANI reported on Thursday.
The state has been embroiled with tension since last month after chief minister Ashok Gehlot's loyalists opposed the possibility of former deputy CM Sachin Pilot succeeding him if he ran for the Congress presidential polls. The impasse led central observers from Delhi Ajay Maken and Kharge visit Jaipur to resolve it. The duo had called a Congress legislature party (CLP) meeting at Gehlot's residence, where Pilot also came. However, over 90 MLAs did not show up there and instead held a separate meeting at state minister Shanti Dhariwal's house. These revolting lawmakers later submitted their resignation over the matter.
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Maken and Kharge gave a detailed report to Sonia Gandhi - the then Congress president, after going back to Delhi and called the absence of the lawmakers from the CLP meeting a “grave indiscipline”. Later three of Gehlot's loyalists - Dhariwal, Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi, and state-run tourism corporation chief Dharmendra Rathore, were handed with notice.
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Gehlot, in the end, met with former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, profusely apologised to her for the turmoil in his state and also opted out of the race to become her successor. He eventually turned up as one of the prominent faces of the grand old party, who backed Kharge to take on the role of the unit's president.
The relation between Pilot and Gehlot has been strained since his former deputy rebelled against the CM's regime in Rajasthan two years before albeit unsuccessfully.
The ANI report, meanwhile, further stated that Kharge is likely to visit poll-bound states of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat soon.
Kharge will be given the charge of the Congress president formally at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters. All members of the Congress working committee, Pradesh presidents, CLP leaders, former chief ministers and party's state presidents along with other AICC officer bearers have been invited to the programme.
Congress MP and party's former president Rahul Gandhi will also participate in the function, marking the first time he will be back in the national capital since the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ started.
