Congress president polls: Ashok Gehlot set to meet Sonia Gandhi on September 21

The deliberations on the Congress presidential election is gathering momentum with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, a potential candidate, all set to meet party chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Wednesday, two days after aspirant Shashi Tharoor met her and a day before the issuance of notification for the organisation polls.

Gehlot’s proposed meeting also comes ahead of Sonia holding discussions with Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal on “organisation-related issues” on Tuesday, on a day the Chief Minister also called a meeting of party MLAs in Jaipur late evening. Venugopal will be in Delhi till Thursday.

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The discussion between Sonia and Gehlot and the meeting of Rajasthan Congress MLAs on late Tuesday evening have set the tongues wagging about him entering the fray, at a time Rahul Gandhi remains adamant against returning to the party chief’s position.

Gehlot is also likely to fly to Kerala to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra either on Wednesday or Thursday where he may hold discussions with Rahul, who has “no plans to visit Delhi” between September 24 and 30, the period for filing nomination, sources said. Rahul may also not visit Delhi on Friday, when the Bharat Jodo Yatra takes its weekly break, as planned earlier.

Gehlot’s bete noir Sachin Pilot has already reached Kochi on Tuesday to be part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Gehlot is learned to have reluctantly agreed to file nominations for the presidential polls early next week but would like to retain the Chief Minister’s post or install his loyalist in the chair instead of giving it to Pilot. However, the party’s central leadership is not in agreement with Gehlot’s demands.

All this is happening even as the chorus for Rahul as Congress president intensified on Tuesday with two more state units – Haryana and Jharkhand – joining the bandwagon and taking the total number of state units doing so to 11. On Monday, Tharoor met Sonia who “welcomed” a contest while Gehlot has been saying that he will continue to try to persuade Rahul.

Also Read: Shashi Tharoor’s move to contest for Congress chief post brews resentment in Kerala

Though senior party leaders are maintaining that the central leadership, read the Gandhi family, will remain “neutral” in the event of a contest, Gehlot’s entry would send a message that Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra prefer the veteran leader against Tharoor, who has made it clear that he will contest but not against Rahul.

After his meeting with the Congress president, Venugopal, who was out of the capital as part of Bharat Jodo Yatra for the past two weeks and flew to Delhi from Alappuzha, dismissed any suggestion that the meeting was related to the presidential elections. He said there was “no scope” for a discussion on the election as the schedule has already been announced.

Asked about state units passing resolutions favouring Rahul, Venugopal said there was nothing wrong in that as they have the freedom to do so.

“People have affection for Rahul-ji and it was on display during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Last 10 years, the BJP's lie factory has been spreading lies about Rahul Gandhi and now people of India are realising and witnessing who Rahul Gandhi is. The lie factory is being demolished and not just Congressmen, common man are looking up to Rahul-ji. If the common man has faith in him, why can’t Congress have faith in him?” he told reporters.