With less than a month left to go before the election of the Congress party chief, a major crisis hit India's main opposition party in the state of Rajasthan.
As many as 90 lawmakers loyal to incumbent State Chief Ashok Gehlot have submitted their resignation to the legislative assembly speaker late Sunday night, ahead of a legislature party meeting scheduled to decide Gehlot’s successor.
The crisis has been triggered by the reports that Sachin Pilot could replace Gehlot as State Chief as the latter will contest the polls for the party’s top post.
Following a mass resignation of Gehlot loyalists, the party’s interim chief Sonia Gandhi directed senior party politicians Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken to hold one-on-one talks with the legislators who have submitted their resignation to the assembly Speaker.
However, Maken told reporters on Monday that they waited for the legislators to meet during a Congress legislature party (CLP) meeting but they didn’t turn up.
“They kept three conditions before us: first, a resolution to leave the decision to the Congress president can certainly be passed but the decision should be taken after 19 October. So we said that if Ashok Gehlot moves a resolution that everything is being left to the Congress president…and when he becomes the Congress president after October, 19 then he is empowering himself on his own resolution – there can’t be a bigger conflict of interest than this, so (we asked them) you don’t do this.”
“But they said you will have to publicly say this and make it a part of the resolution, that the resolution is being passed today but it will be implemented after October 19,” he added.
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The second condition put forth by the lawmakers is that they will not hold a one-on-talk but will come in groups. Thirdly, they want a state chief to be elected from the 102 lawmakers, who were loyal to Gehlot and not Pilot, or anyone from his group.
Meanwhile, Congress lawmakers loyal to Gehlot held a meeting with Rajasthan Minister Shanti Dhariwal and skipped meeting Maken.
Over such an step by state lawmakers, Maken warned of action, saying: “Prima facie, this is indiscipline indeed. When an official meeting has been called and someone calls a parallel unofficial meeting, it is prima facie indiscipline. We will see what action can be taken.”
Media reports said Kharge and Maken have now left for Delhi where they will brief Sonia Gandhi about the development.
Reacting to the crisis in Rajasthan, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician and federal minister Anurag Thakur on Monday said: “I think less entertainment happened in 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' (an ongoing foot-march to raise support for the party), now it has started in Rajasthan.
"This fight of Congress shows that they just want to enjoy the power, don't want to serve the public. Congress has neither direction nor a leader,” he remarked.
Congress parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi, the party’s former chief, started his march on September 7 from Kanyakumari (in southern India). Congress has termed this campaign “a movement to unite the voices of the people of India, against injustice”.
The recent crisis in Rajasthan is seen as a worsening power struggle between State Chief Gehlot and Sachin Pilot which has been going on ever since Congress formed the government in 2018.
With the mass resignation of Congress lawmakers, the strength of the Rajasthan Assembly has been reduced to 108 where the halfway mark will be at 55. The BJP has 71 members in the House as one of its member died while the party had suspended one more for cross voting during Rajya Sabha (Upper House) elections.