Jaipur: Rahul Gandhi may be insisting that he wants to quit as president of the beleaguered Congress – but that isn’t buying him any me time.
On Tuesday morning, his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, visited him at his house, accompanied by Sachin Piot, the Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Next up was Ashok Gehlot, who is Pilot’s boss as the Chief Minister of the desert state which the Congress won from the BJP in December, only to see its gains being purged in the general election that has just concluded.
The results, declared on May 23, marked a phenomenal re-election for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a 52-seat crisis for the Congress. On Saturday, Gandhi told his party’s top leaders at a session of the Congress Working Committee (the CWC) that he is done with chief-ing it. Vadra, his younger sister, spoke ardently in his defense, stating it was unfair to hold one person responsible for the party’s downward spiral. Gandhi, dissecting the Congress’ nationwide clang, spoke sharply of party leaders who put their sons’ interests first, choosing to campaign for their children and ignoring the needs of the party in key states.
In this category rests Gehlot whose son Vaibhav lost by more than 2 lakh votes to his BJP opponent in the constituency of Jodhpur. The defeat has emboldened those who are allegedly in Pilot’s camp to trot out complaints that nail Gelhot for the Congress being unable to win even one of the state’s 25 seats. Two Rajasthan ministers have said the verdict must be closely examined and accountability fixed – who they are throwing darts at is not mysterious.
Gehlot has told reporters, “The media often reports what was discussed but sometimes it reports things out of context. Howver, as Congress president, Rahul Gandhi has every right to point out mistakes by any of us when we were discussing what went wrong. He has the right to point out any shortcomings that may have happened during the campaign.”
Meanwhile, a senior minister, Lal Chand Kataria, known as a Gehlot man, claims to have sent his resignation letter to the Chief Minister – his move is seen as an attempt to divert the glare from Gehlot and build a case for collective responsibility.
When the Congress won Rajasthan in the state election five months ago, Pilot, 41, made it clear that his hard work in rebuilding the party in the state deserved to be rewarded. He was allegedly told that with the national election coming up, Gehlot’s experience and popularity among vast swathes of legislators meant he could not be denied the post of Chief Minister. The compromise was that Pilot was made No 2. In the months since then, Gehlot and he have reportedly worked at cross-purposes, their rivalry impacting both campaigning and candidates, according to party insiders.
Now, in the Congress’ utmost defeat, their competition may be playing out its most flagrant chapter yet. It bears all the imprints of one of the party’s biggest problems – whom to choose and when.
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