Ashok Gehlot has another tussle brewing: Between his close aide and his top minister

Along with Shanti Dhariwal (79), Kalla (74) is among the senior-most — and also the most experienced — ministers in Gehlot’s Cabinet. In his sixth term as MLA, Kalla holds the portfolios of Education (Primary and Secondary), Sanskrit Education, Arts, Literature, Culture and ASI (Archaelogical Survey of India).

Sharma’s list of credentials is equally long. He has been with the Congress for about 25 years, beginning with the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) way back in 1998. In the mid-2000s, he moved to the state Congress unit, when Narayan Singh was the Rajasthan Congress president.

Since 2012, after Gehlot became CM in his previous stint, Sharma has been associated with Gehlot, taking over the handling of his presence on digital platforms. While Gehlot lost to the BJP’s Vasundhara Raje in 2013, Sharma continued, and has held that role since – including into the Congress veteran’s current stint in power.

Asked about Sharma’s visits to Bikaner, Kalla recently said, “I will contest elections, I am the winning candidate. I am working, and my work is before you.”

Asked about Sharma’s visits to Bikaner, Cabinet minister Kalla recently said, “I will contest elections, I am the winning candidate. I am working, and my work is before you.”

On leaving the field “for youth” — read Sharma, who is 46 — Kalla said: “Koi tayyar hoga toh uske liye chhor denge, lekin abhi toh koi tayyar nahin hua (If someone is ready to take the seat, then I will leave it for them. But there is no one ready yet)… There is no one who is prepared to contest, even in the BJP… The field is empty.”

The soft-spoken Sharma does not deny he has political ambitions, nor dismisses altogether the idea of Bikaner – his supporters claim he has family links to the area. Talking to The Indian Express, Sharma said: “I am a political person and every political person has a dream to serve the people as a public representative. I certainly wish to contest elections.”

About being interested in a specific seat in Bikaner, he said: “Only time will tell from where and how… but yes, I am drawn to Bikaner and the people there are very nice. I am attached to Bikaner. The love of people of Bikaner keeps drawing me there, I feel at home there.”

Sharma has also been building his profile, not just on social media but also off it. He has been holding ‘Yuva Samvad’ with youths across the state, with whom he or his team is in touch with digitally and in person, with the “main aim” of propagating the Gehlot government’s showcase welfare schemes. He has covered about 15 districts and over 75 Assembly constituencies (of Rajasthan’s 200), he says.

Hundreds of youths have been known to turn up at these meetings, organised by Sharma and his supporters.

Sharma is also the “sanrakshak (mentor)” of the Ashok Gehlot Fans’ Club, led by Rishi Vyas as state president. The fan club has a presence in over 20 districts. Incidentally, Vyas hails from Bikaner and is close to Sharma.

There is another reason Sharma might be seeking safety in active politics. Since 2021, the OSD to Gehlot has been in the crosshairs of Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, after the latter’s name was alleged to have come up in tapped calls from the time of the mid-2020 rebellion in the Rajasthan Congress led by Sachin Pilot.

the Congress has earlier too burnt its hands taking on Kalla.

In March 2021, Shekhawat lodged an FIR in New Delhi against Sharma and others, accusing them of criminal conspiracy and “unlawfully intercepting telegraphic signals (telephonic conversation)”.

Sharma has denied recording any phone calls, saying he came across the audio clips on social media, and shared them when he heard that “the persons in the audio clips are planning to topple a democratically elected government”.

The Delhi Police has issued seven summons to Sharma so far in connection with the case, and he has appeared four times, and been interrogated for about 20-22 hours.

Shekhawat also keeps targeting Sharma in his constant tussle with Gehlot. The issues over which the Union minister and CM have clashed include the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (Gehlot has accused the Centre of blocking it), Sanjivani scam (in which the Rajasthan Police has named Shekhawat), the 2020 rebellion, and Gehlot’s son Vaibhav’s loss to Shekhawat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Sources said that having taken so much heat on the CM’s behalf, Sharma might be of the opinion that he has earned his right to a seat.

Moreover, many within the party feel dropping sitting MLAs would serve the Congress well, given the anti-incumbency against sitting ones and ministers. Gehlot is seen as having given them a free hand in return for their support during the 2020 crisis – and since, as Pilot keeps raising the banner of revolt.

A section of the party leaders feel the Congress should, in fact, drop most of the sitting MLAs if it wants to return to power. Projecting younger leaders would also help Gehlot at a time when Pilot presents himself as the face of youth and change in the party.

Sharma fits the bill on both counts.

Brahmins form the largest chunk of voters in Bikaner West at 62,000, followed by 32,000 Muslims, 20,000 Malis, 25,000 SC/ST members, and 15,000 Jats. Sharma identifies as a Brahmin while Kalla calls himself a Pushkarna Brahmin. In 2008 and 2013, when Kalla lost, it was to the BJP’s Gopal Joshi, also a Pushkarna Brahmin.

Technically, Sharma can claim an edge, as representative of the entire umbrella of Brahmins.

However, the Congress has earlier too burnt its hands taking on Kalla. In 2018, the party had decided to deny him a ticket from Bikaner West given his two successive poll losses from the seat, and fielded Yashpal Gehlot (no relation to the CM). However, protests by Kalla’s supporters had forced the Congress to retract and retain Kalla, who had gone on to win.

With the next contest between Gehlot and Pilot set to be about whose supporters get the most poll tickets, neither would want an angry leader on their hands. And Kalla, who has kept his distance from Pilot, still has an edge as a leader who has served his constituency for long versus Sharma, whom his supporters insist is an “outsider”.