After defeating BJP in the Rajasthan assembly polls on Tuesday, Congress is on the verge of announcing the next Chief Minister of the state, while preparations began early at the Raj Bhawan in Jaipur for the oath-taking ceremony. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Thursday seemed decidedly sure to appoint the party’s general secretary Ashok Gehlot as the new CM of Rajasthan, over the state’s Congress chief Sachin Pilot.
However, in Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath was announced as the newly-appointed Chief Minister of the heartland state.
Our best wishes to Shri @OfficeOfKNath for being elected CM of Madhya Pradesh. An era of change is upon MP with him at the helm. pic.twitter.com/iHJe43AB9v
Congress (@INCIndia) December 13, 2018
A close race in Rajasthan
It was a tough call for various reasons, as the tussle for the position continued between rival stalwarts and newly elected legislators, one representing the young face of the party and the other, the old guard.
Two-time chief minister Ashok Gehlot is likely to be the party’s choice, sources informed the media after Rahul Gandhi met the two hopefuls individually in Delhi on Thursday. Gehlot will be taking the position for the third time in his prolific political career, after being credited with keeping the party together time and again. He recently played a seminal role in putting the post-poll coalition government together in Karnataka earlier this year.
Pilot will continue playing a significant role in consolidating the Congress unit in Rajasthan, ahead of the 2019 polls, reported The Wire.
Sachin Pilot’s contributions
Formerly a Union Minister in Manmohan Singh‘s UPA government, Pilot was made the chief of the state’s Rajasthan unit after Congress was washed out in the last assembly polls in 2013. The 41-year-old two-time parliamentarian who recently won his first assembly election further urged his supporters to maintain “peace and decorum” after they began blocking the highway in Karauli as the race for the post got tenser.
”I have full faith in the leadership, we will welcome whatever Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi decide. It is our responsibility to uphold the honour of the party, we are dedicated to the party,” Sachin Pilot tweeted. However, according to some reports, he has refused to stand down quietly as the scales tipped exceedingly in favour of Gehlot.
Pilot already conveyed to the All India Congress Committee that both leaders had left the final decision to Gandhi, when K.C.Venugopal and Avinash Pandey of the AICC met them in Jaipur on December 12. According to an India Today report earlier in the day, the party’s central observer Venugopal offered Pilot two options holding the chief ministers post on rotational basis or becoming the deputy chief minister. Both were reportedly rejected by Pilot.
Congress still favours the old over the new
Last year, when the 67-year-old Gehlot was called back to Delhi to assume general secretaryship of the party, he was also handed the charge of Organisation and Training department. At the time, many believed that this was done to clear the way for Pilot, who made the chief of Rajasthan’s Congress unit.
But Gehlot actively participated in the election campaign this year, even presenting himself as the chief ministerial candidate in a particularly controversial campaign rally. It wasn’t received well by the AICC which has a tradition of not revealing the chief ministerial candidate until after elections, unlike the BJP. Yet, following the recent victory, which hasn’t exactly been emphatic for the Congress (one shy of the majority mark), the party seems to have made a careful choice by going with Gehlot’s experience and acceptance over Pilot’s energy and discipline.
With the 2019 Lok Sabha in sight, Congress wants to utilise Gehlot’s popularity among the state’s various backward caste groups. Reputed for his sardonic humour and political acumen, Gehlot was known for being an accessible leader who knew how to efficiently address minority interests. He held the chief ministers office twice, from 1998 to 2003 and then from 2008 to 2013.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius