'Won't tolerate traitors being rewarded, conspiracy to remove CM': Gehlot camp targets Ajay Maken amid Congress crisis

The Ashok Gehlot camp on Monday targeted Congress in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken, accusing him of being involved in a “conspiracy” to remove the chief minister and promoting Sachin Pilot for the post. Without naming Sachin Pilot, he said that the state "MLAs will not tolerate traitors being rewarded".

Launching a fierce attack on Maken, Rajasthan Congress MLA Shanti Kumar Dhariwal said: “A general secretary secretary is himself canvassing to make such people CM, MLAs had to get angry, disgruntled. MLAs asked me to listen to their voice. They want someone from 102 MLAs who huddled together to stay with Congress for over 34 days (in 2020) to be made CM.” 

“It was 100 per cent a conspiracy to remove the CM (Ashok Gehlot) ... and general secretary incharge was a part of it. I am not talking about anyone else, no charge on Kharge but only the general secretary incharge,” he added.

Dhariwal, a Gehlot loyalist, also recalled the 2020 revolt by Pilot when he, along with 18 MLAs, camped in the national capital, bringing the government on the brink of collapse. 

“In 2020, when state Congress was in trouble, our President Sonia Gandhi had asked that govt be saved at any cost. Despite having CM in Rajasthan, traitors claimed govt has fallen, only came back when session was called, they're being made CM now,” he said. 

“CM Gehlot has always followed the instructions of the High Command. The High Command had (back in 2020)asked him to accommodate those in wrong & he accepted what was asked (to include Sachin Pilot),” Dhariwal added. 

The minister further said, "We are soldiers of Sonia Gandhi. I have not been accused of indiscipline even once in the last 50 years."

"If the party general secretary and in-charge has come up with a mission to make such people (who rebel against the party) as the chief minister, then the MLAs were bound to be angry."

The sharp attack came after Congress observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Maken, who came to Jaipur for the legislature party meeting, kept waiting for the MLAs at the chief minister's residence and the legislature party meeting could not take place. Both the leaders returned to New Delhi on Monday and apprised party president Sonia Gandhi about the developments.

Talking to reporters after a nearly one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting with Gandhi, AICC in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken said the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting was organised with the consent of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and termed the act of the MLAs loyal to him to hold a parallel meeting as "indiscipline".

According to Maken, the representatives of the MLAs loyal to the chief minister put forward three conditions, including that the decision on the next chief minister would be taken by the new party president.

"How is it possible that the person moving the resolution authorises the Congress president... That person wants to fight AICC president polls and if he wins the polls, he would decide on it? If this is not conflict of interest, what is?" he said in a reference to Gehlot.

Maken said the MLAs loyal to Gehlot wanted to meet in groups as opposed to the high command's order to meet them separately, saying there was no precedent to such an act in the party.

Meanwhile, senior party leader Kamal Nath ruled himself out as a probable candidate for the party's presidency even as he stepped in to troubleshoot the ongoing crisis in the party's Rajasthan unit.

The Congress high command had called Kamal Nath to Delhi. He is likely to play the role of a mediator and try to broker a truce in the state unit, which is reeling under a factional feud after a possible leadership change move turned into a full-blown crisis for the party.

The Congress in Rajasthan plunged into a crisis on Sunday as 92 Congress and Independent MLAs loyal to Gehlot resigned over a possible move to appoint Sachin Pilot as Gehlot's successor, their rebellion erupting just ahead of a Congress Legislature Party meeting.

Reports suggest that Gehlot is out of the party president race as Gandhis are said to be upset with him over the flexing of muscles by the MLAs and 'humiliation' of the party.