Congress likely to reshuffle Rajasthan Cabinet before polls

Learned a lesson from the Punjab fiasco, Congress leadership is now taking steps to ensure that there is no delay in bringing clarity on the leadership issue in poll-bound Rajasthan “one way or the other” by July after holding a consultation with all stakeholders.

While senior leaders neither confirmed nor denied a change in leadership saying “there will be finality” in the next two months, sources said there could be a Cabinet reshuffle that the leadership believes would assuage concerns among leaders.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot are locked in a battle of one-upmanship in the state with the latter seeking a leadership change even as the central leadership is treading cautiously.

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Sources said the leadership has set the deadline at July to settle the issues and it believes that it has sorted out issues with Pilot, who was also made a member of one of the three committees set up by Congress president Sonia Gandhi recently, by inducting some of his supporters in the Ministry.

“Either way there will be clarity. Everyone will know what it is. There will be no confusion. Everyone will be consulted,” a senior leader involved in negotiations said.

After its disastrous performance in the recent Punjab elections, sources said it does not want to repeat the way in which it handled party affairs in the state. Congress had effected a change of leadership by removing Amarinder Singh, who formed a new party and inducting Charanjit Singh Channi less than six months before the polls.

The delayed decision making in Punjab, for which Sonia took responsibility in a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, was said to be one of the reasons for the party losing the state.

However, Congress is not rushing into the exercise as Rajasthan will be witnessing Rajya Sabha elections to four seats early next month. While BJP has three seats and Congress one, the latter believes that it can win three this time.

“We will start our consultation process after the Rajya Sabha elections. We do not want to annoy any MLA (by making changes or sending signals),” the leader said.

In the 200-member Assembly, Congress expects to have the support of 126 and the BJP 71. There are three other MLAs of Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, which has announced it would not vote for the BJP.

A Rajya Sabha candidate in Rajasthan would need 41 votes to win and the BJP would need at least 11 more votes to get its second candidate victorious. Congress believes that in such a scenario, it is better placed to get a third candidate elected. “This is exactly why we do not want to anger our MLAs or create confusion,” the leader said.