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Journalism of Courage
As a fleet of cars made their way to the premises of Rajasthan Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal on Sunday evening for a meeting of pro-Ashok Gehlot MLAs before the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting, now delayed, a sense of deja-vu hung heavy in the air.
Just like in 2018, when he made a play for the chief minister’s position, Sachin Pilot is in the running to be the chief minister but MLAs loyal to the veteran leader stand in the way. The former Union minister is said to have the backing of the Congress high command to succeed Gehlot as CM if the veteran leader gets elected as party president. But, at least 80 MLAs from the Gehlot camp are said to be against the idea of handing over the state’s reins to him. They are opposed to the CLP passing a one-line resolution giving the Congress president the right to choose the next chief minister, which they fear will be Pilot.
Pilot fancied his chances of becoming the CM four years earlier too after having led the party’s revival in Rajasthan and bringing it back to power. But the former Union minister, who was the Rajasthan Congress chief at the time, left the job incomplete in the polls. The Congress, despite emerging as the single-largest party, fell one seat short of the majority mark of 100. This gave Gehlot a way in and with the Congress requiring outside support to form the government, independent MLAs such as Ramkesh Meena and Babulal Nagar came out in the veteran leader’s support. They said they were ready to support the Congress only if Gehlot got the top post. Most of these Independent MLAs on Gehlot’s side were former Congressmen who had been denied election tickets by Pilot.
Among those who stood with Pilot at the time was Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) chief Hanuman Beniwal, who pledged the support of his three MLAs if Pilot was made the CM.
The Congress high command deputed its general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal to seek the opinion of each Congress legislator about who the CM should be. While the Congress leadership was quick to announce the CMs of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, two other states where it won the Assembly polls that year, the Rajasthan impasse dragged on for a few more days.
Both Gehlot and Pilot camped in Delhi for a series of meetings with the party’s top leadership. Initially, Pilot put his feet down and refused to part with the CM’s chair. Subsequently, protests erupted in certain areas in eastern Rajasthan, which is Pilot’s stronghold, with the demonstrators demanding that Pilot be appointed the CM.
But Gehlot won out in the end on the strength of his support in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) and on December 14, three days after the results were declared, then Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted a picture with both Gehlot and Pilot. The photo was captioned, “The united colours of Rajasthan.” Shortly after that, Gehlot was announced as the CM while Pilot settled for the deputy CM’s post.
Detente over
But the peace was short-lived as Pilot who, sources claimed, had been assured by the high command that he would be made the CM before the next Assembly elections rebelled against Gehlot two years later.
A similar CLP meeting was called at Gehlot’s residence on July 13, 2020, but Pilot and 18 MLAs loyal to him gave it a miss. What followed was a no-holds-barred battle between legislators from the two camps.
Pilot loyalist Mukesh Bhakar made it clear through a tweet that “being a slave to Ashok Gehlot” was not acceptable to him. Legislators on the CM’s side retaliated with assertions that the CM had the support of a majority of the CLP and the MLAs backing Pilot had been misled.
With Pilot’s MLAs camping in Manesar, Haryana, the state police’s special operations group headed there to investigate allegations of horse-trading and conspiracy to topple the government. The Haryana Police stopped them. The Gehlot administration also filed a flurry of complaints based on which FIRs were registered against the attempt to bring down the government. Some of the rebel MLAs were also named in the FIRs.
The political crisis blew over after a month as the Congress high command brokered a truce between Pilot and Gehlot. The rebel MLAs returned to the state in August and voted for Gehlot in a confidence motion tabled in the Assembly.
Gehlot on Sunday hinted that he would be ready to step down if the high command so wished and added that it was time for a new generation to get a chance. “Whenever the CLP meets during elections or for the selection of chief minister, a one-line proposal is passed that we are giving the right (to make the decision) to the Congress president. This has been our tradition. I believe this will happen today too,” the CM told reporters.
On Thursday, he had told The Indian Express that it was necessary for the high command to talk to every MLA, seek their views, and decide based on that.
Echoing those views, the CM’s advisor and Independent MLA Sanyam Lodha said, “If a decision is not being taken according to the sentiments of the MLAs, then the government will function. If it is not according to the will of the MLAs, can a government function?”
