Over 90 Gehlot loyalists threaten to quit if Pilot is named Rajasthan CM

The Congress party hit a predictable impasse, on Sunday (September 25) evening in its bid to ensure a smooth transition of power in Rajasthan. Over 90 MLAs, including a majority of the Congress’s 101 legislators, supporting the Ashok Gehlot-led state government tendered their resignations to Assembly Speaker CP Joshi late Sunday evening in protest against the party high command’s presumed bid to elevate Tonk MLA Sachin Pilot as the new chief minister.

The all-out rebellion by lawmakers loyal to Gehlot has come as a major blow to the party’s central leadership that had only recently convinced the Rajasthan CM to enter the Congress’s forthcoming presidential contest.

Sources told The Federal that interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, incensed at the embarrassing turn of events in Jaipur, instructed party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken to individually speak with every Congress and independent MLA supporting the Gehlot government about their choice for the new CM and “not return to Delhi until a consensus is reached”.

Kharge and Maken had been dispatched by Sonia to Jaipur to preside over a meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) on Sunday evening where a one-line resolution was to be passed authorising the interim Congress chief to name the new CM. However, things did not go as per script.

MLAs loyal to Gehlot refused to turn up for the CLP meeting and instead made their way to the residence of Shanti Dhariwal, minister for parliamentary affairs and urban development in the Gehlot cabinet. Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, a staunch Gehlot loyalist and the state’s minister for transport, told The Federal that “barring a dozen odd MLAs, no Congress MLA or the 13 independent MLAs supporting our government want Ashok Gehlot replaced”.

Loyalists vs rebels

In a barely veiled attack at Pilot, Khachariyawas said, “the party high command needs to listen to and respect the wishes of the MLAs who stood solidly with the Congress when some of our colleagues were conspiring with the BJP to topple Ashok Gehlot’s government. If the leadership wants to make the chief conspirator of that betrayal the new CM, none of us will accept it. We are prepared to resign from the membership of the Assembly.”

Also read: In Kerala, Rahul shoots down Ashok Gehlot’s double-role ideas

Maken, the Congress’s general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan, told reporters in Jaipur that he and Kharge will speak to all the MLAs to “resolve the situation at the earliest”. In a telephonic conversation with this reporter, Maken confirmed that “there is unhappiness among MLAs on the possibility of Ashok Gehlot leaving the CM’s post but that is natural because he is our tallest leader and is a third term CM”.

However, the party general secretary hinted that in the absence of unanimity over the appointment of Pilot as the CM, the party leadership may consider elevating a compromise candidate to replace Gehlot. “The final decision on who will be made CM will be taken by our president after considering the opinion of the CLP… no decision will be forced; it will be taken through the widest possible consensus.”

Stress on post

That Gehlot was reluctant to leave his chief ministerial throne in Jaipur for Pilot, who had led an unsuccessful coup against him over two years ago, was common knowledge. The Federal had reported on September 11 that the 71-year-old party veteran wanted to continue as Rajasthan CM even if he was elected as the Congress president next month or to at least his loyalist, and not Pilot, succeed him.

However, Rahul Gandhi’s firm assertion of implementing the ‘one person, one post’ rule as adopted by the Congress in May after the Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir in Udaipur made it clear that Gehlot would have to give up his role in Jaipur if he is to lead the Congress nationally. Gehlot, who had earlier made light of the ‘one person, one post’ norm claiming that it applied only to nominated positions in the party and not elected ones was forced to do a volte face after the put down by Rahul.

The Gandhis, though, had clearly not anticipated the scale of revolt an attempt to foist Pilot in Gehlot’s stead would trigger. Congress sources variously attribute this miscalculation to “over confidence about Gehlot’s loyalty for the Gandhis”, “failure of the leadership in gauging the extent of resentment majority of CLP members have towards Pilot” and, perhaps more perilously, “the dwindling authority of the Gandhi family”.

“Gehlot has not forgiven Pilot and his loyalists for their failed coup. He has kept that issue alive for two years and raked it up publicly time and again. How then could the high command think Gehlot would willingly give up the CM’s chair for Pilot and that too at a time when he is expected to be elected as the party’s national president? Besides, what message would we be sending to our workers and voters in Rajasthan in an election year if we knowingly created a situation where the party president and CM could not stand each other,” a senior Rajasthan Congress MLA told The Federal.

Also read: Can Gandhis replace Gehlot with Pilot without replaying Punjab in Rajasthan?

When Gehlot’s name was mooted for the impending Congress presidential polls, it was largely seen, both within the party and among political observers, as a ploy to ease him out of Jaipur and make way for Pilot a year before assembly polls are due in Rajasthan.

The Pilot camp had been claiming that if Gehlot is allowed to complete his five-year term as CM and lead the assembly poll campaign, the party would be roundly defeated by the BJP. The Pilot camp argued that Rajasthan had the tradition of voting out an incumbent government every five years and that the Congress’s worst electoral routs in the state were recorded in the 2003 and 2013 polls that were conducted after Gehlot’s first and second stints as CM.

Signs unread

The Gandhis, having already faced the humiliation of a failed experiment of replacing Amarinder Singh with Charanjit Singh Channi as Punjab CM just six months ahead of assembly polls in the state, reportedly wanted to give Gehlot’s successor at least a year in office to reverse any anti-incumbency against the government and also rebuild a new team. However, what the Gandhis clearly did not bargain for was the possibility of their loyalist going rogue. They also failed to understand a crucial difference between the political realities of Punjab and Rajasthan.

“The Gandhis did not realise that unlike Punjab where many of our MLAs had lost confidence in Amarinder, in Rajasthan Gehlot still enjoyed complete support of the CLP. The high command bought into the highly exaggerated claims of Pilot’s popularity or his ability to carry the Congress. His rebellion had made him unpopular within the Congress in Rajasthan but instead of winning the confidence of the MLAs, Pilot focused on rebuilding his image in the media as a loyal Congress member. The high command bought into that fake narrative. Barring a handful of MLAs and party office bearers, no one wants Pilot as the CM,” a Gehlot camp MLA told The Federal.

On Pilot’s part, a major failing appears to be his inability to earn the confidence of the Congress MLAs despite having been the state’s longest serving Congress chief – nearly seven years before he was summarily sacked for his rebellion.

Similarly, Gehlot too may be accused of a myopic political vision for desperately holding on to the CM’s chair despite the offer, by none other than Sonia to whom he repeatedly pledges fealty, of leading the Congress nationally in its time of crisis.

Yet, it is difficult to absolve the Gandhis of prime culpability in making a grand organisational mess once again. The fresh rebellion in Jaipur is as much the result of clashing ambitions and inflated egos of Gehlot and Pilot as it is of the high command’s inability to stay abreast of ground realities through a proper feedback mechanism.

Also read: Ashok Gehlot: Trying to strike a chord with masses ahead of Rajasthan Assembly polls

The Congress’s all powerful organisational general secretary, KC Venugopal, a key Rahul aide and co-traveller in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, is a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan. Randeep Surjewala, another Rahul-confidante was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan earlier this year as were old party hands Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari (both are known to enjoy the confidence of Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra). Maken, the Congress’s Rajasthan desk in-charge, too is a Rahul acolyte with easy access to Sonia and Priyanka.

Even if Gehlot’s views on the transition of power were to be discounted due to his vested interest, it is pertinent to question why the Gandhis were blindsided about the obvious faultlines within their party in a state that has provided political sanctuary to half a dozen of their confidantes, beginning with Venugopal and Maken. That the organisational uproar in Jaipur, orchestrated by a seemingly unwavering Gandhi family loyalist, comes at a time when Rahul is busy relaying the message of uniting India with the Bharat Jodo Yatra has turned the Congress into a laughing stock with its critics taunting the party of first uniting its own ranks.

Congress sources say the party is now desperate to find a compromise candidate for chief ministership even as Gehlot may have risked his own elevation as party president by drawing the wrath of the Gandhis with his obduracy.

Names of Assembly Speaker CP Joshi, once a key Rahul aide who has been in and out of Gehlot’s coterie at different points in time, and Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Dotasra have been doing the rounds. Congress insiders claim that the extent of revolt among the Congress MLAs has pretty much ended the possibility of Pilot’s elevation as CM for now.

Whether these speculations have any truth to them will be known in a day or two. What is certain for now is that the Gandhis have, yet again, failed to read the mood of their colleagues in a crucial state besides being put in a quandary by a loyalist whose quiet acquiescence they had taken for granted.

By allowing an impression of his imminent elevation as CM to gain momentum without first ascertaining their ability to deliver on it, the high command may also have prepared ground for Pilot to take the flight that had crash landed two years ago.