As Congress presidential poll nears climax, focus to shift on Gehlot-Pilot duel in Rajasthan

After the fate of the electoral fight for the post of the next Congress president between Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor gets sealed on Monday, focus will shift to long-running rivalry between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Sachin Pilot for who gets to call the shots in the largely desert state.

Late last month, the matter had come to a head after 82 Congress MLAs in Rajasthan did not attend an official legislature party meeting convened for passing a resolution authorising the Congress chief to appoint a successor to Gehlot, who was then about to contest the Congress presidential election, and participated in a parallel meeting at Gehlot loyalist Shanti Dhariwal's residence in Jaipur.

While Gehlot has long been known as a loyalist to the first family of the country's oldest party, his position as the Gandhis' confidant is said to have been dented with the developments last month.

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Pilot, who had rebelled against Gehlot's leadership in 2020, is seen as an agent of change, just like Tharoor, who many say has been putting up a spirited fight for the top Congress post but has fallen short when it came to winning the 'loyalty' tag.

Quite a few Congress leaders and observers have pointed out it has been ironic that the party is trying to reinvent itself but the campaigns for the Congress president elections as also for who gets the top marks for running Rajasthan are being largely driven by a narrative of who is closer to the Gandhi family, rather than who is more capable of running the party in today's age.

A senior leader said the family is not very keen on Gehlot continuing as the chief minister, after he defied the diktat for him being a party president candidate and quitting as Rajasthan CM but Gandhis are not completely convinced of Pilot either.

There is also a possibility that the party may decide that neither Gehlot nor Pilot get the charge of Rajasthan, which will anyway go to polls next year and the BJP has been trying hard to come back to power.

The party sources also pointed out that Gehlot has joined Rahul Gandhi a lot more times in the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the incumbent chief minister remains on good terms with the Gandhis.

He was also present at the Congress' rally in Karnataka's Bellary on Saturday.

However, there is a counter view that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi are a lot more comfortable with Pilot, while the old guard, including the interim party president Sonia Gandhi and the favourite in the party presidential election, Kharge, have better equations with Gehlot.

Gehlot is set to visit Gujarat from October 17-18 as part of his responsibility as senior observer for polls in that state.

He is likely to participate in a roadshow and a public meeting in Radhanpur on October 17. He is also expected to participate in a roadshow and youth rally at Tharad on October 18.

Activity on Rajasthan has been going on behind the scenes even as the spotlight remains on the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the party's presidential polls, with the three loyalists of Gehlot -- ministers Dhariwal and Mahesh Joshi and party leader Dharmendra Rathore -- having replied to the show-cause notice issued by the Congress disciplinary committee over the rebellion by a large group of MLAs.

The disciplinary committee is likely to hold its meeting soon to discuss further steps in the matter.

The show-cause notice was issued to the trio after 82 MLAs did not attend an official legislature party meeting convened for passing a resolution authorising the Congress chief to appoint a successor to Gehlot.

The party's disciplinary committee had sent the notices after Congress observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken submitted their written report to party chief Sonia Gandhi charging the three state leaders with "gross indiscipline".

The Congress disciplinary panel's member secretary Tariq Anwar in the notice to Dhariwal, Joshi and Rathore had referred to Maken's report. The matter had reached an impasse as legislators loyal to Gehlot wanted that if he is replaced, any of the 102 MLAs who supported the Gehlot government during the crisis in July 2020 should be elected chief minister.

In July 2020, the then Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, along with 18 of his supporting MLAs, revolted against the leadership of Gehlot.

Gehlot had last month apologised to Congress president Sonia Gandhi for not being able to get the one-line resolution passed in Jaipur, authorising the president to pick his replacement.