New Delhi: Ashok Gehlot is a man of few words. So, when he does speak, it’s a sign that something is brewing in Rajasthan politics.
Last week, when the three-time chief minister of the desert state gave a long-winded statement in Jaipur without provocation, it was natural for friends and foes alike to sit up and take notice.
First, Gehlot clarified in great detail that he did not rebel against the Congress high command in 2022, when it had wanted him to take over as party president.
“If Sonia Gandhi offered, would I refuse? There was a conspiracy,” he alleged, recalling the sequence of events when central observers Ajay Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge travelled to Jaipur in September, 2022.
The Congress Legislature Party was expected to pass a one-line resolution empowering the central leadership to choose a successor. Gehlot was drafted for a bigger role in Delhi. With him as the party’s national president, the Congress wanted to project him as the Other Backward Classes (OBC) face to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
As the state’s second-longest-serving chief minister, Gehlot checked all the right boxes: Gandhi family loyalist who had worked with three generations of the Congress first family.
But that wasn’t to be. In the Congress’ history, this was perhaps one of the isolated incidents when central observers failed to get the state unit to toe the high command’s diktats.
There was speculation that the Rajasthan strongman wanted to continue as CM even as the national president. Akin to the twin role that Narendra Modi assumed ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls: Gujarat CM and BJP campaign committee chief. Others felt he just wanted to stay put in Jaipur.
Gehlot’s loss was Kharge’s gain; Kharge went on to become the national president while retaining the post of the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. A year later, when the Congress came to power in Karnataka, it appointed Kharge’s son, Priyank, to an important ministerial
position.
Gehlot, however, stayed back in Jaipur to serve his remaining term as CM. The ties with Delhi had unmistakably soured.
The loss
At a conclave just ahead of a batch of Assembly polls slated for December 2023, Rahul Gandhi made an interesting observation. “I would say, right now, we are probably winning Telangana, we are certainly winning Madhya Pradesh, we are certainly winning Chhattisgarh. Rajasthan, we are very close, and we think we will be able to win,” he said, raising eyebrows both within and outside the Congress.
And in December 2023, Gehlot lost. Since then, he has remained in the doghouse. Reports suggest that the Congress top brass has not entertained him much in the last three years. Gehlot, too, has lain low, hoping that the tide would turn sooner or later.
But politicians and fast bowlers don’t forget and forgive easily. After the Kerala elections, now that the tide seems to be turning, the Congress has got down to putting its affairs in other states in order. Especially the ones that will see elections in the next couple of years.
In Karnataka, the party has been able to bring about a seamless transition of power from Siddaramaiah to DK Shivakumar. It is asserting its position vis-à-vis allies in seeking power-sharing in states and representation in the Rajya Sabha nominations.
In Rajasthan, too, there are signs that the Congress may effect a leadership change. Current state unit president Govind Singh Dotasara has been in office for six years, and one of the strong contenders for his replacement is Sachin Pilot, Gehlot’s bete noire in Rajasthan politics.
The clawback attempt
Now we return to the second part of Gehlot’s recent statement, where he sought to clarify his position on the 2022 incident to the high command.
“The MLAs were of the view that they would not accept Sachin Pilot as the chief minister because he was the one who tried to take the MLAs away,” Gehlot said, raking up the July 2020 rebellion when 19 lawmakers seen to be close to Pilot camped at a Haryana resort seeking leadership change. Pilot was then the deputy CM and Rajasthan Congress president.
To save the government, Gehlot, too, shifted his MLAs to a resort. The high command intervened. Pilot was sacked both as deputy chief minister and state unit chief. He relented as Gehlot managed to retain power.
Six years later, in broaching the Pilot’s rebellion, Gehlot seemed to be alluding to his continued reluctance to pass on the baton to the next generation, especially Pilot.
For someone who has remained the undisputed leader of the Congress in Rajasthan since 1998, when he first took over, Gehlot is well-entrenched.
In 1998, he pipped stalwarts and Jat strongmen like Parasram Maderna to become the CM. In 2008, CP Joshi — the other contender for the CM’s post — lost the Assembly elections by one vote.
In 2018, despite being the national general secretary, Gehlot managed to wriggle an Assembly ticket and emerge as the consensus choice.
But all these years, he had the Congress high command’s backing. The 2022 episode seems to have altered that perception.
