Jaipur: The simmering discontent within the Congress against Chief Minister Ashok Geh-lot has begun manifesting itself in public with legislators demanding his replacement by the PCC president & Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. Earlier, immediately after the election results were declared, two of Gehlot's Cabinet colleagues -- Udai Lal Anjana and Ramesh Meena -- had asked for introspection, given that the Congress had lost all the 25 seats in a replay of what happened in 2014. The latest to join the anti-Gehlot bandwagon is a tribal MLA, B R Meena; he has demanded that the Congress leadership should replace Gehlot with Pilot to reclaim its political space. Meena said that the government should be led by a younger person as the youth who voted the Congress to power in December 2018 is disillusioned with the leadership of Gehlot.
Meena warned that the party would receive another drubbing in the forthcoming local bodies and the panchayat elections if Gehlot was not replaced. He also said Gehlot has failed to provide leadership and was busy campaigning for his own son at Jodhpur and had neglected the other 24 constituencies. Meena said the CM was also responsible for the loss in the Marwar region. The outspoken MLA, who belongs to an influential tribal community of east Rajasthan, said Gehlot had not been able to keep the Jats and Gujjars together either. Meanwhile, as the blame game persisted, Gehlot said his son Vaibhav was fielded with the consent of Rahul Gandhi and Pilot. He said Pilot had even predicted mid-way during the campaign that Vaibhav would win by a big margin; instead, he lost by 2.74 lakh votes. Gehlot and Pilot did not begin their relationship on a happy note after the Congress came to power in Rajasthan in December. Pilot was coaxed into giving up his claim to the chief minister's post by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. This was after Gehlot convinced the leadership that he would be able to deliver good results in the Lok Sabha election.
PRAKASH BHANDARI
