Jaipur, June 7: In remarks that are likely to reignite presidential election debate within Congress, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who was seen as a frontrunner to take over as Congress chief in 2022 but was seen to have preferred state politics, has said that if Sonia Gandhi and the Congress were making him the Congress President, would he have refused.
Gehlot's remarks, coming almost four years after a show of strength in Jaipur in the presence AICC observers, led to the central leadership giving up plans bring a leadership change in Rajasthan ahead of 2023 assembly polls.
"I know the stature of the Congress President's post.. (Mahatma) Gandhiji has been President, Pandit Nehru, Motilal Nehru has been President, who hasn't been, Sardar Patel has been party President, if Sonia Gandhi and the Congress were making me the Congress President, would I have refused? The situation was so created, I think it was a big conspiracy. The observers arrived suddenly, and I got defamed. People think that Ashok Gehlot wanted to remain Chief Minister and did not want to become Congress President, so the revolt happened," he told reporters.
"Even people close to me abroad, they also think the same that Ashok Gehlot wanted to remain Chief Minister, he orchestrated the revolt. How can I explain to them, I am explaining to you. If even now something good comes, you do that what I have told you....," he added.
Sonia Gandhi was interim president of the party in 2022. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was eventually elected as party chief in October 2022 and is set to be re-elected to Rajya Sabha later this month. He defeated Shashi Tharoor in the election.
Gehlot also spoke about apparent efforts to replace him with party leader Sachin Pilot as Chief Minister.
"People feel that I wanted to be CM and I orchestrated the revolt. The media spread it. I stayed quiet. I stayed quiet as I had to tell Soniaji that whether it was a revolt against Pilot or whatever, I don't have anything (to do). I was the leader of the legislative party, observers from AICC had come. Coming of AICC observers has significance. It was Kharge Sahab or Ajay Makenji and I couldn't get the resolution passed," Gehlot said.
"Although I had said at night to end the meeting for now and we would talk after calling another meeting tomorrow. That situation did not arise for us... so it... so that... didn't happen... the resolution couldn't be passed. I went and expressed my regrets before Madam, party has given me everything, this situation arose so I am apologising...," he added.
The political turmoil in the Rajasthan Congress in April 2022 led to Mallkarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken, who were AICC observers, to file a report to the party leadership.
The Gehlot camp MLAs had "refused to hold a one-to-one meeting with them".
Kharge had said in April 2022 that they arrived in Delhi after meeting three MLAs in Jaipur.
"We are going to give our report to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi," said Ajay Maken ahead of his meeting with Congress's interim president. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, after arriving in Delhi from Jaipur said the decision will be taken by Sonia Gandhi after they submit the report."We are going to 10, Janpath and will meet Sonia Gandhi. We will apprise her about the events (about the Rajasthan Congress crisis). She will eventually take the decision on it," he had said.
Maken had met with three members from the Gehlot camp - Shanti Dhariwal, CP Joshi and Pratap Khachriyawas who had put forward three proposals.
Later, after the meeting, Maken told the reporters that the three MLAs forwarded three proposals, which they did not accept, as it raised a conflict of interest.
"Their first proposal was to announce the implementation of the resolution of handing over the final responsibility of appointing the chief minister to the Congress high command and to pass it after October 19.
"We told them that this raises conflict of interest, as if Gehlot is elected as the Congress president then this proposal will empower him further after October 19 and there can be no bigger conflict of interest than this so we did not do this," Maken said.
He also said that their second condition was that they wanted to come in groups and when we said that we wanted to talk to each of them individually as it has been a practice of the Congress to take feedback from each leader. "However, they did not accept this."
"Their third condition was that the chief minister should be picked from the 102 MLAs who were loyal to CM Gehlot and not from the Pilot group," Maken said.
He said that "the three Gehlot camp supporters insisted on us meeting their three conditions and we told them that their exact sentiments will be conveyed to Congress chief, who will take the decision after talking to CM Ashok Gehlot and everyone else."
"We waited for more MLAs to come but they didn't come. Now Mallikarjun Kharge and I are going to Delhi to submit our report to the Congress president," said Maken.
Nobody has any idea about the number and the identities of the MLAs who have resigned or not, he said.
A legislative party meeting was scheduled at the residence of Gehlot in the presence of the observers, which was to be attended by Sachin Pilot and his camp MLAs.
However, the Gehlot loyalists had held a meeting with Cabinet Minister Shanti Dhariwal at his residence, following which over 90 MLAs had submitted their resignations to Speaker CP Joshi.
Pilot was seen as the successor of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who was set to contest the Congress president election scheduled on October 17.
The Rajasthan deputy chief minister had conducted a second round of meeting with the AICC observers.
The Gehlot loyalists apparently wanted someone from their own camp to be chosen as the next Chief Minister, instead of Pilot, who, according to them, had revolted against his own party back in 2020. (ANI)
