The petrol pump allotment scam is likely to have its first major fall-out in the Congress soon, with pressure mounting on party president Sonia Gandhi to remove Rajasthan PCC chief Girija Vyas. She was among the many top politicians whose names figured on the list of those allotted pumps by Ram Naik, as published in The Indian Express. Since then, she has been frantically trying to build bridges with New Delhi but to no avail. While a meeting was held by senior Congressman K Natwar Singh a few days ago to consider the possibility of putting a Jat leader as state PCC chief, Sonia on her part has called several prominent partymen from Rajasthan, including former Chief Minister Shiv Charan Mathur, to decide on Vyas’s replacement. Significantly, Vyas fell out with the Congress leadership here much before the petrol pump scam came to light. The report in The Indian Express — published on July 23 — only gave a fresh impetus, and excuse, for the party to tighten the noose around Vyas. She had, in the report, confirmed that she was allotted a petrol pump in Udaipur but insisted there was ‘‘nothing irregular’’ about it. Asked then if her party would raise the issue of BJP leaders getting pumps, she said: ‘‘I don’t know. These things happen with every party.’’ Days after the report, Vyas was summoned by the party high command to give her side of the story. And her version, Congress sources say, has left the leadership shaking its head in disbelief. ‘‘For one, Vyas claimed that she got the pump for her two widowed sisters. But when asked why she got the allotment in her name and not for one of them, she had no convincing answer,’’ say a senior party leader. Beside herself being an allotee, Vyas was a member of Parliament’s Standing Committee for Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas that looked at the petrol pump allotments. A section of the party feels that Vyas merits an exit on the petrol pump issue alone since the party is all geared up to utilise this particular ammunition against the NDA Government. The recent attacks on Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin — which, by all available indications, are likely to mount — would force the Congress to ‘‘keep its slate clean’’ when it came to taking the pump scam to the people at large. Her petrol pump may turn out to be Vyas’s nemesis, but for quite some time now Sonia Gandhi’s attention has also been drawn to the powerful and vocal Jat lobby of Rajasthan. Traditional Congress suporters, the Jats of Rajasthan are piqued with the party for ignoring the community completely in the state. Both Vyas and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot are non-Jats. To add fuel to the fire, the recent appointment of Bhajan Lal — a Bishnoi — as the PCC president of nearby Haryana has angered the community further. Also being taken into account are the strained relations between Vyas and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
