New Delhi: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Thursday said he “will not contest” for the upcoming Congress presidential polls after over an hour-long meeting with interim party chief Sonia Gandhi.
“I’ve said sorry to Sonia ji and asked for her forgiveness. A simple one-line resolution is our tradition whether it is for elections or for choosing CM… I’m the CM, it is my moral responsibility that for the first time such a resolution, which is our tradition, could not be passed,” Gehlot said when asked about the meeting with Gandhi.
The chief minister was referring to a major embarrassment the party faced over the weekend when a big chunk of its MLAs in Rajasthan boycotted a meeting of legislators, ostensibly in support of Gehlot.
On 26 September, around 90 MLAs submitted their resignation to Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi stating they “were not being taken into consideration”, while deciding the candidate for the next chief minister of the state if Gehlot is elected as the Congress chief.
A meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) in the presence of senior observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken had been called Sunday, ostensibly to pass a resolution authorising Sonia Gandhi to make the decision. However, dissident MLAs, who were made to understand that Gehlot’s adversary, Sachin Pilot, would be the high command’s choice, did not attend the meeting and instead called for another meeting to exhibit support for Gehlot.
“I’ve always worked as a loyal soldier of the party since the time of Indira Gandhi, then Rajiv Gandhi and then Sonia Gandhi. The party has always trusted me and bestowed me with responsibilities whether as a minister or as state chief and with Sonia Ji’s blessings, I became CM for the third time. What happened over the last few days has shaken everybody. I am extremely saddened by it. The message that went out is that I want to stay CM, that’s why all this is happening”, said Gehlot in Delhi after meeting Sonia.
Last week, Gehlot announced he would fight for the polls after making one last-ditch effort to convince Rahul Gandhi, who was participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra at Kochi, to take up the post. However, the Gandhi scion refused, after which Gehlot declared that he will contest. Rajasthan CM had earlier met Sonia twice, and it was understood that he was the family’s preferred candidate, even though they had said to be “neutral” during the election process.
Ever since the fiasco, which the family believes was orchestrated by Gehlot, there were speculations over whether or not he was still favoured by the family.
Gehlot further noted that the decision of whether he would continue as Rajasthan chief minister would be taken by Sonia Gandhi.
In a major political twist Thursday, a day before the final day of nominations, former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh collected his nomination papers for the polls and announced that he would contest in spite of having categorically denied being interested in the same earlier.
Former Union minister and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor had also collected his nomination papers for the polls earlier.
The final date for filing nominations for the party’s presidential polls is Friday. Interested candidates will have to file their nominations by 3 pm.
Also read: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh collects nomination papers to enter party chief race