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‘Congress chief authorised to select Rajasthan CM thrice since 1998’
A resolution was due to be passed authorising Sonia Gandhi to pick the next chief minister at a Congress legislature party (CLP) meeting on Sunday
The Congress president has been authorised to select the chief minister in Rajasthan on three occasions since 1998, through one-line resolutions, a section of the Rajasthan legislators pointed out after chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s loyalists on Sunday skipped attending a key meeting where a similar resolution was to be passed.
Instead, most of the party’s lawmakers in the state attended a parallel meeting at a minister’s house and 92 lawmakers allegedly handed in resignation letters to speaker CP Joshi to prevent Pilot’s possible elevation as Gehlot’s successor.
A Rajasthan-based leader said that when Gehlot became the chief minister first in 1998, the Congress legislative party approved a one-line resolution authorising the Congress president to select their leader.
“Gehlot was not the Rajasthan...[state] chief. He was not even an MLA [member of legislative assembly] when he became the chief minister in 1998. He was an MP [member of Parliament]. Yet, a resolution was approved and Gehlot was selected,” added this person, considered close to former deputy CM Sachin Pilot.
“Similar one-line resolutions were passed in 2008 and 2018. But no one objected to it. Now Gehlot loyalists have rejected such a resolution and demanded a conditional resolution....”.
The leader added what happened in Rajasthan was not a plot against Pilot, but an attempt to undermine the Congress president’s authority. Another leader said this was a “new” Gehlot and “those who have known him for years, did not expect this to happen.”
Pilot flew to Kerala last week to participate in the Bharat Jodo Yatra with Rahul Gandhi. Legislators close to Gehlot saw it as a signal that Pilot enjoyed the trust of the Gandhi family and could be their nominee for the chief minister’s post.
Pilot loyalists, however, claimed that central observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken were not in Rajasthan to seek a consensus for Pilot. “The two observers waited for five hours for the MLAs to turn up. But over 90 MLAs did not come. Kharge and Maken never said the resolution was to make Pilot the chief minister. it was only to authorise the Congress president to pick the CM,” said a second leader.
The first leader said Gehlot must be held accountable for the parallel meeting held at minister Shanti Dhariwal’s residence. “He is the chief minister. If MLAs are loyal to him, he must answer why they did not come for the [CLP] meeting.”
Gehlot appeared initially keen to juggle both responsibilities but later seemed reconciled to stepping down as chief minister after former president Rahul Gandhi reiterated the Congress would stick to the one person, one post rule. Pilot was widely seen as the leadership’s choice to replace him.
The 92 lawmakers gathered at the residence of Dhariwal, a Gehlot loyalist who also has chief ministerial ambitions, on Sunday when Maken and Kharge landed in Jaipur to hold the CLP meeting.
