Rajasthan Assembly Election 2018: Hand-picking the CM face

Having missed the magic figure by a whisker in Rajasthan, the Congress, confident of forming a government with the support of independents, has now to pick the chief minister between frontrunners Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot.

After a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting to decide who would be chief minister remained inconclusive, with Pilot and Gehlot factions refusing to yield ground, a team of central observers left for Delhi to brief the party high command on the gridlock in the state.

State in-charge Avinash Pandey, All India Congress Committee observer KC Venugopal and four party secretaries in charge of the state polls — Vivek Bansal, Qazi Nizamuddin, Devendra Yadav and Tarun Kumar — flew back to Delhi to brief UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who are likely to take a call on Thursday on the basis of feedback from party workers through an app.

Amid indecision over the next CLP leader, senior Congress leaders including Pilot and Gehlot, who stayed back in Jaipur, met Governor Kalyan Singh and staked their claim to form the gov From ernment in the state.

Sources in the party said that the party has claimed the support of 20 independents and smaller parties including the BSP which has six MLAs. "We have the support in writing from 20 Independents and others. We shall be handing over the list to the governor at the time of government formation," a senior party office bearer said.

Sources who attended the CLP meeting claimed there was hectic lobbying inside the Congress headquarters as the Pilot and Gehlot camps tried to sway newly elected legislators.

"The old team of Gehlot, including former home minister Shanti Dhariwal, which was re-elected pledged their support to the former chief minister," a source said.

On the other hand, PCC spokesperson Pratap Singh Khachariawas, a Jaipur MLA, was seen gathering support for Pilot, sources said.

After hectic parleys between Gehlot and Pilot factions failed to yield a unanimous decision, the two leaders went inside a room and had a discussion for about 10 minutes, only to leave the decision-making to Rahul Gandhi.

Some legislators felt the CLP leader's election process was "good for nothing" as they had already given the veto power to the party high command. Deeg-Kumher MLA Vishvendra Singh, who is the party's vice-president, said: "We have passed a proposal giving authority to Rahul Gandhi to take decision. Why are the MLAs then being asked to vote?"

Bharat Singh Kunderpur commneted that it was a tradition, a source said.

A formal process to know the mandate of each MLA on the CLP leader was also carried out after the AICC observer KC Venugopal insisted on conducting the process. "Venugopal recorded the opinions of every MLA before convening the unanimous decision to the party high-command," a source in the loop said. Several leaders were candid in their choice of leader, while there were some who refused to name anyone, suggesting that the party's central leadership would take the final call.

Deputy CM formula

Sardarshahar MLA Bhanwer Lal Sharma hinted the discussion on the nomination of deputy chief minister had taken place in the CLP. "They are trying to break a rupee into two coins of 50 paisa each," he said, suggesting that one of the frontrunners would be the CM while the other his deputy.