The political crisis in Rajasthan is as much the creation of Chief Minister and Congress Presidential candidate Ashok Gehlot as it is of the Congress high command, which assumed it could ignore the voice of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) and force its will on legislators. On Sunday evening, 90 of the party MLAs quit in a show of solidarity with Gehlot and against any move to make Sachin Pilot the chief minister. A CLP meeting was called in Jaipur Sunday ostensibly to confirm Pilot’s elevation to the CM’s office, disregarding the reservations that Gehlot had expressed to the party leadership. Instead, the CLP, unofficially, met at the residence of a Cabinet minister and openly declared its disagreement with the central leadership. The episode, far from over, leaves the Congress central leadership looking diminished, clueless and ineffectual. The Pilot camp claims 90 is a padded figure — how the party leadership responds to this will decide how serious it is about reforms within.
What is clear, however, is that the party’s Rajasthan crisis points to a flawed communication strategy within. The party leadership seems to have made different promises to different people in a bid to reconcile their differences only to realise that it may no longer command the authority to enforce its word. This was visible in Punjab, where clashes between the then CM Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu turned into a full-blown crisis, leading to the rout of the party in the recent assembly elections. Similar factional tensions are visible in the Congress units in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. The absence of decisive leadership and effective crisis managers have already led to many senior leaders leaving the Congress. These exits and implosions have also dented the authority and credibility of the high command.
Any bungle by the Congress leadership now could lead to the unravelling of the party in Rajasthan and cast a shadow over the impending election to the party president’s office. Gehlot, seen as close to the Gandhi family and its choice for party chief’s post, has conveyed that he is no pushover. The image of the three-time CM with considerable experience in managing the party organisation has changed overnight from that of a family loyalist to a powerful state chieftain willing to plot against Delhi. This has complicated power equations within the party and introduced an element of unpredictability to the presidential contest. However, if Gehlot gets to shift to Delhi and install an MLA of his choice as CM or continue in Jaipur despite the high command’s preference for a transfer of leadership, it would further erode the authority of the Gandhi family. That, however, may not necessarily be a bad thing for the Congress, as it seeks to rebuild under a non-Gandhi. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, currently on a padyatra, will have to think extra hard before he takes the next step.
