Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to meet Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today amid crisis in home state

mangaloretoday.com

Jaipur, Sep 28, 2022: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is slated to meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today. This comes amid speculation about Gehlot and whether he will decide to go ahead with his earlier plan and file his nomination for the Congress presidential post.

 

A political drama erupted on Sunday night after 82 MLAs submitted their resignation to the assembly Speaker, CP Joshi. The MLAs who resigned gave a three-point agenda opposing the selection of Sachin Pilot as the next chief minister if Gehlot wins the Congress presidential post.

Their demands include a chief ministerial face chosen from the 102 MLAs who were loyal to the Congress party in June 2020 when there was an attempt to topple the government. The MLAs in the Gehlot camp also conveyed to the party high command that deliberations on possible leadership change in Rajasthan should happen after the new Congress President is appointed. Third, Ashok Gehlot’s choice should be taken into consideration.

This led to a standoff between the Congress leadership and Gehlot loyalists, with party high command seeking a report from its party observers, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken.

Meanwhile, the observers in their report to Sonia Gandhi said Gehlot is not responsible for the crisis in the state but recommended disciplinary action against prominent leaders who called a parallel meeting.

Several cabinet ministers from the Gehlot camp, including Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi and MLA Dharmendra Rathode were accused of orchestrating the parallel meeting in a bid to subvert the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting.

The legislature meeting was called at the behest of the party president and was supposed to be carried out in the presence of party observers Mallikarjun Khadge and Ajay Maken.

Courtesy: India Today