New Delhi: On Thursday, deep within the throes of a full-blown controversy, Ashok Gehlot confronted a frenzied media after his assembly with Sonia Gandhi. The Rajasthan chief minister regarded round, smiled on the journalists he knew and guaranteed them with a hand gesture that they’d get the solutions they had been in search of
A podium was arrange exterior the Congress president’s 10 Janpath residence for Gehlot. Showing sombre however resolute, the 71-year-old started his tackle by saying that he had been a “loyal soldier” of the Congress for the previous 50 years and had served the celebration underneath the management of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, and Sonia Gandhi.
Gehlot stated he felt he had damaged a Congress custom when, as chief of the Rajasthan Congress Legislative Get together (CLP), he couldn’t get MLAs of the ruling celebration to go a one-line decision authorising the celebration president to nominate the following chief minister.
In spite of everything, he defined, such resolutions are a “custom” the celebration has relied on for appointing chief ministers, distributing tickets earlier than elections, and nominating members to the Congress Working Committee (CWC). The ethical accountability of such an aberration made me change my thoughts about contesting for the publish of Congress president, stated the three-time CM who was being touted as a shoo-in for the highest publish.
“Sonia Gandhi and [new] Congress president will resolve on who turns into Rajasthan CM,” he stated earlier than taking his go away, indicating that developments over the past week didn’t merely price him his presidential nomination, however might have additionally diminished his declare on the CM’s chair — one he has retained by pulling many a rabbit out of his hat over time.
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‘Jaadugar’ from Jodhpur
Born right into a household of magicians in Jodhpur, Gehlot is thought in Congress circles as an organisation man who rose by way of the celebration ranks. Congress insiders imagine that his skill to outmanoeuvre political opponents within the hardest of conditions is nothing in need of wizardry.
He showcased his political acumen through the Rajya Sabha polls in July when the Congress, with simply sufficient numbers (108) to win two seats in Rajasthan, fielded three candidates. However Gehlot courted smaller events (RLD, CPM, BTP) and Independents to make sure that the celebration received all three seats by securing 126 votes, even reportedly getting an additional vote from Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) MLA Shobha Rani Kushwaha.
Later, the celebration’s third candidate, Pramod Tiwari — famed for by no means having misplaced an election in his political profession spanning 5 many years — admitted that it was Gehlot’s magic that paved the way in which for his elevation to the Higher Home.
This magic was on show even earlier when Gehlot spearheaded the Congress celebration’s marketing campaign for the 2017 Gujarat polls as then normal secretary in control of the state. Regardless of its loss to the BJP in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s house state, the Congress secured 77 seats within the 182-member meeting — its highest tally of MLAs within the state in 32 years.
Groomed by Indira, Rajiv
Gehlot was hand-picked by Indira Gandhi within the Nineteen Seventies and drafted into the Rajasthan unit of the Congress celebration’s scholar wing, the Nationwide College students’ Union of India (NSUI). He unsuccessfully contested the Jodhpur College college students’ union elections and the 1977 meeting polls from Sardarpura earlier than he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Jodhpur in 1980.
He went on to grow to be a Union minister of state (MoS) for tourism and civil aviation in 1982 within the Indira Gandhi authorities. Gehlot was retained as a junior minister within the Rajiv Gandhi authorities, dealing with the portfolios of textiles and sports activities.
In 1985, then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi entrusted him with the accountability of the celebration’s Rajasthan unit by appointing him Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president. This was a place he held until 1989 earlier than taking it up once more from 1994 to 1999.
As PCC chief, Gehlot dealt a surprising blow to the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat-led BJP authorities within the 1998 polls when the Congress received 150 of 197 seats within the Rajasthan legislature and Gehlot grew to become chief minister for the primary time. He accomplished a full time period however was voted out of energy in 2003 solely to return as CM in 2008 after which once more in 2018.
Within the 2008 meeting polls, he trounced the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP authorities even because the Congress — with 96 seats — fell in need of a majority. To Gehlot’s credit score, he was capable of maintain the minority authorities for a full time period regardless of stiff opposition from the BJP.
What additionally stood out was his skill to garner exterior assist, as an illustration, convincing MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Get together (BSP) to merge with the Congress in his two earlier stints as chief minister.
However even Gehlot couldn’t flip the celebration’s diminishing fortunes round in Uttar Pradesh for which he was the overall secretary in cost forward of the 2007 meeting elections.
Inside the organisation, he was first made in control of Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as a particular invitee to the AICC between January and July 2004. That very same yr, he was appointed a normal secretary of the celebration and given cost of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Seva Dal. Gehlot was nominated as normal secretary of the celebration once more in 2018.
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Tussle with Pilot
Throughout his third time period as chief minister, Gehlot confronted a direct problem by his then deputy, Sachin Pilot, who demanded that he be appointed chief minister rather than Gehlot. Pilot threatened to carry down the federal government with the assist of about 20-odd MLAs, however Gehlot turned the tables on him by accusing him of conspiring with the BJP. The cost caught, regardless of Pilot’s vociferous denial and makes an attempt to make amends with the Gandhis.
Pilot caught a glimpse of the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel when Gehlot introduced that he would run for Congress president, which might require him to vacate the chief minister’s chair owing to the celebration’s ‘one-man, one-post’ rule adopted within the Udaipur Declaration earlier this yr.
However Gehlot threw a spanner within the works final week when over 80 MLAs pledged assist to him and petitioned the celebration’s central management to delay the appointment of his successor till 19 October — the day the outcomes of Congress presidential polls are to be declared.
Highway forward for Gehlot
With Gehlot conceding that Sonia Gandhi will appoint his successor, it’s clear that the celebration excessive command has conveyed to the veteran Congressman that his place is being reconsidered. Get together insiders say that for a person like him — a member of the Gandhi household’s “shut circle” — a revolt just like the one which broke out final week, was “uncommon”.
“He is called a soft-spoken man who wears his loyalty to the Gandhis and the celebration on his sleeve,” stated a senior Congress chief in Delhi who didn’t want to be named. “However he was unwilling to let go of Rajasthan so near the elections and it was clear from the start that he didn’t need the publish of [Congress] president at the price of Rajasthan.”
One other celebration chief in Delhi stated the scenario Gehlot finds himself in displays the ‘young-old’ divide throughout the Gandhis. “Whereas Mrs Gandhi needed him [Gehlot] to take cost in Delhi, additionally it is true that Rahul and Priyanka had been batting for Pilot as a younger CM face. After some extent, each politician has to battle for their very own kursi (chair) and Gehlot’s loyalty may solely get him thus far. Now, his politics will resolve his destiny within the celebration,” the chief instructed ThePrint on situation of anonymity.
Throughout his interplay with reporters Thursday, Gehlot made certain to stress that his apology to Sonia Gandhi was unconditional and heartfelt.
“I’ve stated sorry to Mrs Gandhi and requested for her forgiveness,” he stated, to which a reporter responded by asking Gehlot: “Maaf kar diya kya? [did she forgive you?]”
The political way forward for the ‘Jaadugar’ (magician) from Jodhpur now hinges on the reply to that query.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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