NEW DELHI: In perhaps the first test for Mallikarjun Kharge after taking charge as Congress president in October, senior party leader Ajay Maken on Wednesday quit as AICC in-charge of Rajasthan. The timing of his resignation is significant as Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is set to enter the desert state in the first week of December and Rajasthan Assembly elections are just a year away.
In his one-page letter to Kharge, Maken cited the rebellion in the party on September 25 as the reason for his decision to step down. According to sources, Maken was upset over the leadership’s soft stand towards Ashok Gehlot loyalists who boycotted the Congress Legislature Party meeting on September 25, convened to pass a resolution authorising the Congress chief to appoint a successor to Gehlot, who was asked to contest the Congress presidential poll.
Incidentally, Kharge and Maken were the two AICC observers who were looking into the indiscipline by the Gehlot camp leaders in boycotting the CLP meeting. “Given the Bharat Jodo Yatra coming to Rajasthan in the first week of December and a by-election taking place on 4th December, it is imperative to have a new in charge as soon as possible,” Maken said in his letter, adding that he wants to concentrate in Delhi through trade unions and NGOs.