Suspense over Congress presidential candidate still on as doubts about Gehlot remains

Suspense over Congress presidential candidate supported by the Gandhi family heightened on Tuesday with party Treasurer Pawan Bansal taking two sets of nomination papers for a “potential candidate”, even as Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s prospects for becoming party chief continued to hang in balance.

Senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken submitted a nine-page report on the Jaipur rebellion recommending action against three Gehlot loyalists – Shanti Kumar Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi and Dharmendra Rathore – who were issued show cause notices late evening by the disciplinary committee.

Gehlot also sent a message to party chief Sonia apologising for the turn of events but insisted that he was not behind the actions of MLAs supporting him. However, Sonia has not accepted the explanation fully, sources said. Sonia will hold discussions with senior leaders before taking a final call on supporting Gehlot’s candidature.

The Chief Minister held meetings with ministers and a section of MLAs in Jaipur where he is learnt to have advised them not to precipitate action. Though the leadership has not taken kindly to the developments, a section in the leadership does not want the Gandhi family to completely shut the door to Gehlot before having deliberations on the party chief’s post.

Senior party leaders have been asked by the central leadership to reach Delhi at the earliest for deliberations to finalise a candidate to take on senior MP Shashi Tharoor in the October 17 polls and a decision is expected on the presidential candidature on Wednesday itself, enabling the leader to file nominations on Thursday, sources said.

With just three days left for the last day of nominations, senior leader and family loyalist A K Antony, who has shifted his base to Kerala owing to health reasons, is reaching Delhi late in the night for discussions while Central Election Authority Chairperson Madhusudan Mistry presented the final electoral list and QR coded voter card to party president Sonia Gandhi.

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Summoning Antony, who shifted his base to Thiruvananthapuram and is keeping away from active politics, showed that Sonia wanted the counsel of her trusted aide in dealing with the situation. While a section believes that the Jaipur episode has cast a shadow on Gehlot’s prospects, sources said the last word has not been said in the political drama.

If Gehlot is finally out of contention, the Congress leadership will look at choosing a candidate from a bunch of leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge and Mukul Wasnik.

The names of Digvijaya Singh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Kamal Nath and Kumari Selja are also doing rounds but a decision is likely to come after Sonia holds discussions with senior leaders on the opponent taking on senior MP Shashi Tharoor who will file nomination on Friday at 11 am.

While Kamal Nath on Monday told reporters that he was not interested in the job after a meeting with Sonia, senior leader Digvijaya Singh told a TV channel during the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in Kerala that “many of his friends say so (to contest)” but he has not decided yet and one has to wait till September 30, the last date of nomination.

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Bansal collecting the papers on Monday has added to the mystery, though sources said he would not be filing the nomination. DH on Monday had reported that a top functionary close to the Gandhi family had collected two sets of nomination papers.

Gehlot, who was earlier scheduled to reach Delhi on Tuesday and file his nomination on Wednesday, stayed put in Jaipur cancelling his travel plans after the High Command expressed displeasure over his supporters “boycotting” the Congress Legislature Party meeting to initiate the process for finding his successor. However, his bete noir Sachin Pilot, whom Gehlot wanted to prevent from becoming his successor, reached Delhi.

If the leadership chooses to continue to back Gehlot for the president post, it will have to navigate a difficult path on dealing with “indiscipline” witnessed in Jaipur on Sunday when the Legislature Party meeting could not be convened. Sonia may “caution” three or four Gehlot loyalists who organised the meet to thwart Pilot’s possible succession ahead of Gehlot filing nomination, if a compromise is arrived at.

Sources said the leadership was of the view that Gehlot now understands the “foolishness” but he should have known it before what his supporters did. While Gehlot claims he had no role in what happened, the leadership is not willing to take it on face value while asserting that they would not have imposed Pilot or any other leader if the MLAs had a different view.