Jaipur: The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting called on Sunday at Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's residence has been cancelled as more than 90 Congress MLAs loyal to the veteran party leader threatened to resign, while demanding the new CM face be picked from their group.
"The MLAs want either Gehlot or his pick to be Chief Minister instead of Sachin Pilot," Rajasthan minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas told the media.
Gehlot reportedly received a call from Rajya Sabha MP K.C. Venugopal who asked him to "handle the situation" but the Chief Minister told the Congress' central leadership that it was "not in his hands".
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Pilot, meanwhile, is believed to be the central leaders' choice for the chief ministerial position.
A delegation from the Gehlot camp went to meet senior Congress leader Ajay Maken who is in Jaipur as observer for the CLP meeting.
These include state Urban Development and Housing Minister Shanti Dhariwal, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas and Mahesh Joshi.
Maken, speaking to the media, said:
"We are not going to Delhi as of now. We have been asked to take feedback from each and every single MLA."
Meanwhile, sources said that the Congress high command has called both Gehlot and Pilot to Delhi.
Meanwhile, Veteran Congress leader Margaret Alva has slammed senior leaders of the party in Rajasthan and asked them to shun personal ambition.
Without taking names, she said the happenings were disappointing.
"The events unfolding in #Rajasthan are deeply disappointing, unfortunate & unnecessary. Senior leaders in the state must be prepared to sacrifice personal ambition & take their cue from @RahulGandhi who has shown what the Congress needs the most right now is selfless service," tweeted Alva on Monday.
As drama unfolded in Jaipur on Sunday, the Congress top leadership seems committed the same mistake as it did in Punjab, but did not anticipate that MLAs will go against high command unlike in Punjab where a majority of legislators went with its wishes. The reason of the Rajasthan MLAs revolting is that unlike Amarinder Singh in Punjab, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has been with the MLAs and had held them together since the 2020 crisis. In Punjab the change of guard was smooth as Amarinder Singh did not resist and resigned, but in Jaipur, the veterans have checkmated the rival camp, who thought MLAs will go as the wish of high command. Politics in Rajasthan took a new twist on Sunday with around 70 MLAs, who are staunch supporters of Gehlot, gathered at the residence of state minister Shanti Dhariwal, to chalk out a strategy to eliminate Sachin Pilot from the race to select his successor. State minister Pratap Khachriyawas said:
"We have all the right to choose our leader and we will decide our leader."
These MLAs reached the residence of Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi to submit their resignation.
Khachriyawas said that their only demand is that the new Chief Minister should be from those 101 MLAs who helped in saving the government during the rebellion and not from those who were a part of the rebels.
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