Suave Sachin Pilot may lose steering wheel to experienced Ashok Gehlot

The main political task ahead of Congress at the moment appears to be the countering of Narendra Modi’s influence in Rajasthan, and party insiders revealed that it would more likely be AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot who, with his long political experience, can achieve this than a younger, less seasoned PCC chief Sachin Pilot. Gehlot’s influence in the party — the Gandhi loyalist has a history of working closely with Indira, Rajiv as well as Sonia — also gives him an edge over Pilot.


The Congress central leadership has sent K C Venugopal as AICC observer to oversee the process to settle the issue of who should lead the new government. “As per the party’s tradition, the Congress president will take the final decision on who will take leadership of the state,” said Venugopal.

Avinash Pande, AICC general secretary in charge of Rajasthan, announced that the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) would meet on Wednesday at 11 am. “During the meeting, the newly elected MLAs will pass a resolution while the central observer will hear the individual opinions of the MLAs and then apprise Congress president Rahul Gandhi of the legislators’ views.” Pande added that a second meeting of the CLP would be held on Wednesday evening, after which the chief ministerial choice could be revealed.

In the run-up to the state elections, Gehlot did not miss any opportunity to assert his credentials as an experienced leader and seemed on occasion to be indirectly staking his claim to the top post. Officially, though, both Pilot and Gehlot have been sticking to the party line that the CM candidate will be picked by the Congress high command in consultation with the new MLAs.

The undertone to the competition between the veteran and the youthful PCC president was reiterated on Tuesday, when the two leaders, instead of reaching the PCC headquarters where the party workers had gathered, chose to follow the election results and address the media from their residences. It was only in the evening that both reached Khasa Kothi to meet Venugopal and Pande.

Again, Pande and his four AICC deputies met Gehlot and Pilot separately at Khasa Kothi before addressing a joint press conference on Tuesday evening. The supporters of both the Congress leaders clamoured through the day to project their respective men as most suitable to head the new government. Party insiders, however, pointed out that the poll results went the way Gehlot would have wanted them to. “Congress is barely above the majority mark,” noted a PCC officer-bearer. “In these circumstances, the party high command may not consider it wise to go against the wishes of a senior leader like Gehlot. Ahead of the high-stakes battle of 2019 that involves 25 Lok Sabha seats, it will seek to avoid intra-party trouble at all cost,” he added.

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