Ashok Gehlot out of Congress president race? Rajasthan CM faces Gandhis' wrath for muscle-flexing, 'humiliating' party

With Gandhis ‘unhappy’ with him over his muscle-flexing, Ashok Gehlot is now out of the race for the post of Congress president. The Rajasthan chief minister was tipped to be the first non-Gandhi party chief after 22 years, at least till Saturday, but the party high command is now not keen on hi9m filing nomination for the post, reported News18 and India Today, quoting party sources. 

India Today quoted a senior Congress leader saying that Gehlot is out of the race and other leaders, who will be filing the nominations before September 30, include Mukul Wasnik,  Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijaya Singh and KC Venugopal. 

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are said to be upset with Gehlot, who was earlier believed to be their choice for the party president post, over him flexing his MLAs in the state and ‘humiliating’ the party. 

With the crisis unfolding and escalating in Rajasthan, Congress in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken slammed the MLAs loyal to Gehlot for setting conditions for a party resolution, terming it a "conflict of interest", and said their decision to hold a parallel meeting amounted to indiscipline. 

On Sunday night, as many as 92 Congress and Independent MLAs, loyal to Gehlot, submitted their resignation to protest against the party leadership's purported move to appoint the 71year-old bitter rival Sachin Pilot as the next CM in the state, which is scheduled to go to polls later next year. On Monday, they continued to remain non-committal on holding a meeting with Congress observers, who later returned to Delhi to apprise the high command about the developments.

MLAs supporting Gehlot threatened mass resignation, making it clear that if he is elected Congress president, they will not accept his bitter rival Sachin Pilot as Rajasthan Chief Minister. 

Gehlot has been reluctant towards accepting the role of Congress president, as might have to cede the CM post to his rival Pilot in that case. While Gehlot indicated on playing a double-role of CM and party chief, Rahul Gandhi made it clear last week that the party's 'one person-one post' resolve must be followed. 

AICC observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Rajasthan in-charge Ajay Maken, who had waited in vain for all legislators to arrive for the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on Sunday, were trying to persuade Gehlot loyalists to meet them one by one in an effort to defuse the political crisis. However, none of them met the two senior leaders. 

Gehlot loyalists MLAs said they have put forth demands before the observers that any decision on the CM's face be taken after the party president election on October 19 and in consultation with Gehlot. They also want someone who stood with the Congress government during the political crisis in 2020.