New Delhi: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot spoke to Congress president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday and also sought time for a meeting with her.
This is the first time the two communicated since the “rebellion” by Congress MLAs on Sunday.
His bete noire Sachin Pilot arrived in Delhi even as former Union minister Pawan Bansal set the rumour bills buzzing after he picked up two copies of the nomination form, the first person to have done so since Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor.
Congress sources say that while there are indications that Gehlot may still be open to the idea of a Delhi move and a resignation from his current post, he is keen that MLAs have a say in his successor. Top sources say that he is expected to meet Sonia in the next couple of days and that could be a signal of a thaw.
On the other hand, the Congress leadership seems to back on the drawing board with Sonia having met former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Monday and another confidante, a now retired A. K. Anthony, confirming to television channels that he is on his way to Delhi from Kerala. Congress Central Election Authority (CEA) chairman Madhusudan Mistry, too, met Sonia on Tuesday. He is said to have submitted a list of delegates who will vote in the upcoming presidential polls.
Kharge and fellow central observer Ajay Maken have submitted report to Sonia recommending action against some MLAs.
Congress circles, meanwhile, are swirling with names of putative president hopefuls even though none have so far expressed that hope apart from Digvijay Singh who had told a reporter, “Why isn’t my name being discussed”, apparently in jest.
Among the other names doing the rounds are those of general secretary K. C. Venugopal and Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and one of the two observers who reached Jaipur over the weekend to oversee the meeting of the Congress Legislative Party that eventually never happened. But senior Congress leaders say irrespective of what shape the president race eventually takes, the party now faces a dilemma.
“The biggest test in all this for the party and the Gandhis is that if they now leave Gehlot out of the race then the credibility of the presidential elections would be destroyed for all times to come. Unfortunately this whole exercise of reconciliation has been vitiated by the fact that it is taking place on the advice of people, some of whom are interested parties — they nurture hopes of being the party president themselves. They are really spoilers and not process builders. The leadership has so far listened to only one side of the story,” said a senior Congress leader.
Also Read: ‘Congress rebel’ tag, danger to personal ambitions — what’s keeping Gehlot camp on edge
Placatory noises
In Jaipur, MLAs from the Gehlot camp have now claimed that on the fateful day when the “rebellion” happened, Gehlot was away at the Tanot Maheswari temple at the India-Pakistan border and did not know about it at all.
“That day he was at the temple, I was also there with him. There is no network there so we had no idea what was happening. People started assembling in one’s and two’s at the residence of [parliamentary affairs minister] Shanti Dhariwal and soon the numbers swelled. He [Gehlot] only got to know later when they went to the house of Speaker C P Joshi. I do not know what talks Gehlot saab has had with the Congress president,” said minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas who was one of the three legislators who had met the AICC observers with the “demands” from the MLAs.
The MLAs had set three conditions 3 that they would pass a resolution empowering the Congress president to decide on the CM but that would only come into effect post October 19 once a new president is elected, they would meet the observers only in groups and not individually and also that the new chief minister should not be among the MLAs who had rebelled in 2020. The demand now is that the new leader should be chosen from among the 102 that saved the government when Pilot and 19 MLAs had rebelled.
Asked about the acceptability of Pilot, Khachariyawas lost his cool. “Why are you asking about him? Is he Lord Krishna that I should keep answering questions about him?” he said and disconnected the call.
Sources say the Gehlot camp is now trying to alter the perception that had been created by the “rebellion” as the battle now being between Gehlot and the Gandhis, with many of them professing undying allegiance to the Congress and its first family. Dhariwal in a press conference on Monday, had said that the Congress president’s decision would be adhered to as “[Sonia] Gandhi is like a mother for all Congressmen.”
“It is a good sign that Gehlot and the Congress president have spoken but one thing is for sure. Whether he files nomination or not, the perception of him being the candidate with the blessings of the high command has been severely dented and that does throw open the race for president, provided there is more than one candidate,” said another party leader.
So far, only Tharoor has said that he would be filing his nomination papers on September 30. Sources also say that Bansal may have collected the papers on behalf of somebody and not with the intention of filling them up himself.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: After ‘Pilot’ plot twist, will Gehlot fight Congress prez polls at all? Leaders no longer sure