THE shock waves triggered by the defiance of MLAs loyal to Ashok Gehlot in skipping a CLP assembly known as for by the excessive command right here on September 25 are but to cool down. Whereas Gehlot now finds the tide turned in opposition to him, he can maybe take solace from the truth that in these few temporary hours on Sunday, he could have modified a practice within the state the place the Congress excessive command has typically performed quick and free with its CMs.
Over one decade within the Nineteen Eighties, the social gathering modified six CMs, with Hari Dev Joshi and Shiv Charan Mathur occupying the submit twice, failing to finish their time period every time.
1971: Mohan Lal Sukhadia, CM of 16 years, goes
All through the late Fifties and ’60s, Rajasthan was led by Congress stalwart Mohan Lal Sukhadia, whose complete tenure of 16 years stays the longest thus far of any CM within the state. Sukhadia retained an iron grip on the state unit regardless of different doyens within the ranks just like the Mirdha and Maderna households.
Nonetheless, Sukhadia’s downfall started with the 1969 election for President of the nation, when he backed the fallacious horse within the battle for management of the social gathering between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and old-timers. The latter included Okay Kamaraj after which Congress president S Nijalingappa, a bunch that was popularly referred to as the Syndicate.
For the President’s submit, the Syndicate-backed Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was the official candidate of the Congress. Nonetheless, sitting vice-president V V Giri threw his hat within the ring as an Impartial, with the tacit assist of Indira Gandhi. After she requested Congressmen to “vote as per their conscience”, Giri defeated Reddy to grow to be the President.
The election and what adopted led to the cut up of the Congress, and marked the start of the Indira Age within the Congress. Sukhadia who, together with an amazing variety of his loyalist MLAs, had voted for Reddy, discovered himself within the doghouse.
Shortly after this, in July 1971, Sukhadia was made to resign as CM regardless of having fun with the assist of a majority of the Congress MLAs.
He was changed by Barkatullah Khan, an Indira loyalist and one of many few Rajasthan Congress leaders to have voted for Giri within the presidential election. Until date, Khan stays the one Muslim CM of Rajasthan.
Nonetheless, in 1973, Khan handed away, and it led to the Congress elevating Hari Dev Joshi to the submit. He held it until 1977, when his authorities was dismissed by the newly-formed Janata Celebration authorities within the Centre, and President’s rule imposed.
Former Rajasthan CM Hari Dev Joshi
From 1977 to 1980, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat led the primary non-Congress authorities within the state, earlier than it was dismissed by a resurgent Congress after Indira returned to energy within the 1980 Lok Sabha elections.
Nineteen Eighties, a brand new CM each few years
In June 1980, Jagannath Pahadia turned the primary Dalit CM of Rajasthan. By no means lively in state politics, he was an MP who was handpicked by the excessive command. Simply over a yr later, because the dissatisfaction of the MLAs mounted, Pahadia needed to step down.
Pahadia additionally ran right into a row, as per Congress old-timers in Rajasthan, for his remarks that he didn’t perceive the writings of well-known Hindi writer Mahadevi Verma. This was at a literary operate in Jaipur, the place Verma was additionally current. A grievance reportedly went to the PM, and Pahadia was out.
Former Rajasthan CM Jagannath Pahadia with Ashok Gehlot.
Senior Congress chief Shiv Charan Mathur — who was amongst those that had voted for Giri within the 1969 election for President — was the subsequent to grow to be CM.
His tenure lasted three years, earlier than a police encounter of a member of the erstwhile royal household blew up on him. On February 21, 1985, Man Singh, an Impartial MLA from Deeg and a member of the Bharatpur royal household, was killed in a police encounter, a day after he crashed his jeep into the helicopter of CM Mathur in a match of rage.
Within the outrage that resulted, Mathur needed to resign.
Congress chief Hira Lal Devpura was sworn in his place, however for a interval of simply 15 days. When it returned to energy within the 1985 Meeting elections, the Congress determined to not proceed with Devpura and introduced again Hari Dev Joshi.
Joshi, whose authorities had been final time dismissed in 1977, couldn’t full 5 years this time too. In 1987, the picture of the Joshi authorities got here below a cloud following the Deorala Sati case, by which a Rajput girl, Roop Kanwar, was mentioned to have willingly burnt herself within the pyre of her husband. As the federal government was pressured to take motion, it confronted counter protests from the Rajput group.
The ultimate nail in Joshi’s chief ministership was pushed by an incident in Sariska, the place then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi determined to carry a gathering of his Council of Ministers. Rajiv gave strict directions that the social gathering leaders coming to the assembly must preserve austerity, and no particular preparations, together with that of automobiles with beacons or convoys, needs to be made.
What transpired has grow to be a folklore of kinds in Rajasthan Congress circles. Whereas Rajiv reached Sariska in December 1988 with out a lot fanfare in his automobile, a flip within the highway took him to a spot the place many official state authorities automobiles have been parked.
The story in Congress circles goes {that a} policeman stationed in Sariska diverted the PM’s automobile there, and that then Rajasthan state Congress president Ashok Gehlot had one thing to do with it. Rajiv was reportedly livid over Joshi not heeding his instructions of austerity and went on to publicly rebuke the CM.
Inside a month, Joshi needed to resign and Shiv Charan Mathur, who needed to relinquish his CM submit in wake of the Bharatpur encounter, was again. Mathur took oath in January 1988, and his authorities additionally had Gehlot, who was an MP at the moment, because the House Minister.
However Mathur’s authorities lasted simply in need of two years, and he resigned after the Congress’s poor efficiency in Rajasthan within the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. The polls noticed the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress shedding, and V P Singh taking cost as PM.
Hari Dev Joshi, who was on the time the Governor of Assam, rushed to Rajasthan to carry the CM submit for a 3rd time, however for less than 90 days. Within the Meeting polls quickly after, in 1990, the Congress misplaced.
The top of Congress period
The interval of 1990 to 1998 noticed Bhairon Singh Shekhawat serving two phrases as CM, main BJP-Janata Dal governments. In 1998, Gehlot turned the CM for the primary time, and since then, each 5 years, the submit has been held both by him or by the BJP’s Vasundhara Raje.
Gehlot has served thrice because the CM, whereas Raje has helmed the submit twice.