Gehlot-Pilot turf war returns to haunt Congress; Kharge has his task cut out

After a restive interlude, the Ashok Gehlot-Sachin Pilot turf war in Rajasthan has returned to haunt the Congress party. On Wednesday (November 2), Pilot took potshots at his intra-party rival over praise that Prime Minister Narendra Modi lavished on the Rajasthan chief minister at a public function a day earlier. Gehlot too shot back at his former deputy chief minister, advising him to ‘maintain party discipline’.

With newly installed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge showing no haste in ironing out differences between his colleagues from Rajasthan, Pilot has practically put his party on notice once again. Pilot knows that Kharge does not have the luxury of time to let the current tug of war drag on too long as the Bharat Jodo Yatra is set to enter Rajasthan in just over a month from now. The Congress can’t afford to have its two most prominent leaders in Rajasthan at each other’s throats when Rahul Gandhi marches into the state with his co-travellers.

Also read: ‘Must follow discipline’: Gehlot responds to Pilot’s barbs

Assembly polls next year

The Tonk MLA wants Kharge to act against Rajasthan parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal, chief whip Mahesh Joshi and Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation chairman Dharmendra Rathore – all Gehlot loyalists – who were served show-cause notices by the party in September for allegedly orchestrating a boycott of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting that had ostensibly been convened to discuss the Rajasthan CM’s successor. Incidentally, Kharge was one of the two central observers – the other being Ajay Maken – dispatched to Jaipur by then party chief Sonia Gandhi to oversee the CLP meeting.

Pilot has made no secret of his growing restlessness over the party’s reluctance in propelling him to the chief ministerial throne. Gehlot, on the other hand, has maintained that he will abide by any decision the Congress president takes with regard to leadership change in Jaipur but has spent the past month stridently refurbishing his image as the only leader who can deliver a victory for the party in the Rajasthan Assembly polls due in November-December next year. The CM has gone on a spree of announcing populist schemes and unveiling projects in the desert state. Gehlot has remained assiduously critical of the BJP while also routinely taking veiled digs at Pilot over the latter’s failed attempt at being pivoted to the chief minister’s chair over two years ago.

Also read: With Adani deal in pocket, Gehlot plays his cards deftly in Rajasthan

The CM has also tried to patch up with the Gandhi family after scuttling Sonia and Rahul Gandhi’s bid to have him elected as the Congress chief and, thus, leave the seat of power in Jaipur to Pilot. This was evident throughout the campaign for the Congress presidential election last month when Gehlot strongly backed the candidature of Kharge (seen as the unofficial choice of the Gandhis) against Shashi Tharoor and also on October 26 when Kharge finally assumed charge of the party’s presidency.

Sonia had left the question of leadership change in Rajasthan unresolved despite the party’s organisational general secretary KC Venugopal initially signalling on September 30 that she would pass her decree on the matter in a day or two.

Kharge inherited the feud but has, so far, given no indication of a timeline within which he would take a final call on the matter. Sources close to the new Congress chief told The Federal that though he had separate meetings with Gehlot and Pilot soon after assuming the party’s leadership, he gave no assurances to either of the warring satraps. “Those were largely courtesy meetings as both Gehlot and Pilot came to congratulate him on winning the party’s presidential election. Although both of them apprised him of their views on the issue (of chief ministership), Kharge did not give any assurance. He told Gehlot and Pilot that the party will carry out the due process of consultation with MLAs and senior leaders in Rajasthan for which observers will be sent again to Jaipur but he gave no specific date,” said a party leader privy to the discussions.

Also read: Gehlot vs Pilot: Sonia may leave it to new Cong prez to solve Rajasthan crisis

Party sources concede that ending the Gehlot-Pilot turf war will not be easy for Kharge as there has been no change in the contours of the stalemate that has now continued for well over two years despite efforts by the Gandhis to broker truce. “There is no easy way out of this situation. Both of them can’t stand each other. If Gehlot is forced to make way for Pilot, he will not leave the party but as someone who definitely has a much better grasp of Rajasthan politics than Pilot, he will ensure that the Congress loses next year’s election miserably. If Pilot is denied chief ministership, he may walk out of the party or, if he decides to stay, sabotage the election,” a senior party functionary told The Federal.

The functionary also said he feels “after such a long drawn conflict, Pilot would not settle for a compromise CM choice as has been speculated by some people in the media”. The only way this stalemate can end, he said, is if “Gehlot shows a big heart – he has been CM thrice and is a valued party leader; he should bow out himself instead of making this an ego issue”.

Congress leaders in Pilot’s camp claim that the Tonk MLA had decided to end his rebellion against Gehlot in August 2020 and stay put in the party on the assurance from Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra that he would be made CM a year before Rajasthan goes to polls.

Also read: Rajasthan mutiny exposes flaws fundamental to Congress leadership

“The deadline has arrived. We can’t have a repeat of Punjab (where the Congress had unceremoniously replaced Amarinder Singh with Charanjit Singh Channi as CM just six months ahead of the Assembly polls and then faced a complete rout). If we hope to win Rajasthan next year, Pilot has to be made CM now so that he has a year to reverse the anti-incumbency against Gehlot. This was also the understanding reached between him and the high command. Pilot has given the leadership no chance to doubt his loyalty to the party and has worked hard for the party despite attacks by Gehlot. It is high time that the party delivers on the promise made to him,” a party MLA loyal to Pilot told The Federal.

‘Feud damaging party’

Supporters of Gehlot, however, claim that the CM continues to enjoy majority support in the CLP and that any bid to appoint Pilot as his replacement will not go down well with the 90-odd MLAs who “remained loyal to the Congress and saved our government when Pilot was plotting with the BJP to topple it”.

The handful of party MLAs who profess their neutrality in this pitched battle believe Kharge, with the support of the Gandhis, must read the riot act to both camps. “This continuing feud has already damaged the party a lot and electorally we will suffer more because of this unresolved problem than on account of who is the CM. We are at a point where the only way out is for the high command to present both Gehlot and Pilot with a fait accompli. The Congress president must settle the leadership question without any delay. Once the Congress president decides in favour of one or the other leader, a majority of the MLAs will fall in line – those who do not, should be dealt with as per the disciplinary rules laid out under the party constitution,” said Osian MLA Divya Maderna.

What Maderna proposes may prove easier said than done for Kharge. However, it is clear that the Congress chief has an unenviable task at hand but one that he can’t allow to spiral into a full-blown crisis. How Kharge dispenses his verdict on the Rajasthan imbroglio and handles its expected fallout will give an indication of his aptitude and appetite for dealing with tricky organisational matters.

Also read: Congress president poll win was a breeze; Kharge’s acid test begins now

It is no secret that the bulk of the Congress’s ongoing problems stem from petty personal feuds among its satraps and for Kharge, dealing with such internal conflicts is expected to become a near-daily chore. Successfully navigating his party out of this raging desert storm is as critical for the Congress’s victory prospects in the Assembly polls due in Rajasthan as it is for defining the future course of Kharge’s newly-minted leadership of the party.