Kamal Nath faced a similar storm two years ago which led to the collapse of his government in MP.
New Delhi:
Veteran Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath is likely to mediate in the crisis in Rajasthan and will meet party chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, sources told NDTV. Ninety-two MLAs in Rajasthan threatened to resign yesterday, saying they want Ashok Gehlot — front-runner for the post of the Congress national president — to retain the post of the Chief Minister. The possibility was negated by Rahul Gandhi, who said the party will stick to the “One man one post” rule.
The MLAs want to keep out Mr Gehlot’s arch-rival Sachin Pilot and his 21 loyalist legislators from the top job.
Ahead of the legislature party meet yesterday, Team Gehlot had met at the home of MLA Shanti Dhariwal and passed a resolution that a Chief Minister should be chosen only from the pool of 102 legislators who stood by the government when Sachin Pilot brought it to the brink of collapse in 2020 with his rebellion.
Central observers Mallikarjuna Kharge and Ajay Maken, who were sent to Jaipur, tasked with resolving the crisis with one-on-one talks with the MLAs, returned to Delhi today, unable to meet any of the dissenters. In a blatant show of rebellion, all of them have refused to talk to the Central leaders and most have gone home to the districts for Navratras.
The MLAs say they will meet the Central leaders in groups and the question of Chief Ministership should be settled after the party’s internal election.
The Gandhis are said to be hugely upset with the situation and Mr Gehlot, who, reports say, their blessing for the party’s top job.
Mr Nath had faced a similar storm two years ago which led to the collapse of his government in Madhya Pradesh. Jyotiraditya Scindia, one of the top leaders of the party in Madhya Pradesh, who was hoping for the top job in Madhya Pradesh joined the BJP with 22 MLAs, pulling down the government in the process.
A similar script has played out in Punjab. The Congress lost the state to Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party in the assembly elections shortly after Amarinder Singh quit the party, humiliated and forced to step down from the post of Chief Minister following a face-off with Navjot Sidhu.