Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Senior leader Ashok Gehlot on Thursday made it clear that he will not surrender his claim for Chief Minister's post if Congress is re-elected in Rajasthan but sent a conciliatory message to his bete noire Sachin Pilot highlighting that he is not opposed to the candidature of MLAs supporting him.
The Rajasthan Chief Minister said he has adopted the policy of "forgive and forget" and moved on while reminding that there would be something in him that the party High Command chose him to lead the state thrice.
At a press conference here at the Congress headquarters, Gehlot claimed that the BJP is worried that there are no discordant notes in the party and all decisions are taken after evolving consensus. He said he is part of all the decisions being taken on giving tickets to Pilot supporters.
“I have adopted the policy of forgive and forget...All the Congress MLAs, including those who have some political differences with me, have said that they do not have any problem in my work. They say they have now become positively tired of asking as I give them what they ask for and more...I have not objected to giving tickets to MLAs supporting Pilot," he said.
He was commenting on questions on whether he has objected to giving tickets to MLAs supporting Pilot who was accused of attempting to topple the Gehlot government in 2020. He gave a clean chit to the MLAs saying, they were offered money but they saved the government and how can he call them corrupt.
Asked whether he will again aspire to be the Chief Minister, Gehlot said in a lighter vein that it is better not to be the Chief Ministerial face in Congress "because those who are named may not get the chair". He said when Sonia Gandhi chose him as the Chief Minister in 1998, he was not the declared face and it was his performance as state chief that might have got him the job.
He said he was given a chance twice more as Chief Minister and a role at the national level despite being defeated. He recalled an elderly woman, who had a heart transplant funded through a government health scheme, asking him to remain Chief Minister though he told her that he was not interested in continuing.
"I told her that I want to leave this post but this post is not leaving me. I think it may never leave me. There must be some reason that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi have faith in me," he said.
Queried about BJP's attitude towards Vasundhara Raje, he said it is their internal matter and added in a lighter vein that she should not face injustice because of him. He referred to his comments that Raje was against toppling the Gehlot government with the help of Pilot supporters like he was against toppling Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's government in the 1990s. "You (media) gave some flavour to my remarks," he said.
The Congress is yet to announce its candidates for the November 25 Assembly elections. Though a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) was held on Wednesday, it could not put a stamp on the list of 106 out of 200 seats, which it was supposed to clear, amid objections from Rahul Gandhi and others on some candidates, especially a couple of Gehlot supporters.