JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Congress crisis seemed to have deepened, with two central observers – Ajay Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge – leaving for Delhi amid toughening of stand by legislators close to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday.
In their report submitted to Sonia Gandhi, the two observers said that the MLAs refused to meet them and opposed replacing Gehlot with Sachin Pilot as the chief minister. The high command may take strong action over the rebellion.
Upping the ante, Gehlot faction leader and urban development minister Shanti Dhariwal on Monday called Pilot a “traitor who will never be accepted as CM”. Dhariwal alleged that Maken had plotted “a conspiracy to remove Gehlot as CM”.
At a press conference in Jaipur, Dhariwal accused AICC general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan Ajay Maken of conspiring to remove Gehlot. “I have a complaint against the general secretary in-charge. The general secretary of the Congress organization came to make the rebel leader the CM. If he asks for proof, I will present it too,” Dhariwal said.
“The way the resolution is being passed and the method is being adopted, it is clear that those who betrayed the Congress would be made to sit on the CM chair,” he added. Earlier in the day in Jaipur, the observers warned the MLAs that their “action amounted to indiscipline”. Maken and Kharge, who were sent to Jaipur to call a CLP meet and decide on new CM, returned to Delhi on Monday afternoon.
“Yes, this is indiscipline, when one official meeting has been called and parallel to it another meeting is called, then it is termed as indiscipline. We will see what action will be taken against it,” said Maken told mediapersons before leaving for Delhi.
Maken said the CLP meeting was called after consultations with Gehlot. “We had told the MLAs that their concerns would be addressed and placed before Sonia Gandhi before taking a final call on CM. But the MLAs did not come to the meeting and we kept waiting.”
Maken said that three ministers -- Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi and Pratap Singh Khachariyawas -- had come to us as representatives of MLAs close to Gehlot. “They put three conditions before us. The first condition was that Sachin Pilot should not be made CM, the second was that the CLP meeting should be called only after October 19 and the third was that CM should be made from the 102 MLAs who played an important role in saving the government.”
“The MLAs of the Gehlot camp had demanded that their conditions be added in the proposal. It has never happened in the history of Congress,” Maken said, adding, “Gehlot himself is contesting the election for the national president, so it would have been agreed later that such a proposal should be brought.”
Gehlot met Kharge in the hotel on Monday afternoon. Before leaving for Delhi, Kharge said, “Everyone will have to be on the same page with the Congress President’s decision. There has to be unity and discipline in the state party unit.”
After meeting Sonia in Delhi in the evening, Maken said, “The Speaker has been asked to submit a written report by tonight or tomorrow evening. We have told everything to the Congress President.”