Jaipur: The game is on and Ashok Gehlot and Rajasthan Pradesh Congress President and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot factions are trying to blame each other for the party’s colossal defeat at the hands of the BJP in the recent Lok Sabha election. The BJP blanked Congress winning all the 25 seats for the second consecutive Lok Sabha election. It was a totally dismal performance by a party that came to power in December 2018.
After Congress president Rahul Gandhi blamed Gehlot along with the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and the former Union minister P Chidambaram during the Congress Working Committee’s (CWC) meeting in Delhi for spending too much time campaigning for their sons, Gehlot was found going defensive.
Gehlot’s two Cabinet ministers, Udai Lal Anjana and Ramesh Meena, who owe their loyalties to the Pilot faction have demanded an introspection on the cause of defeat at both party and at the level of the government. Three days back it is speculated that agriculture minister Lal Chand Kataria,who is a former Union the minister has tendered his resignation, but this has not been confirmed yet.
Both Gehlot and Pilot met Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Tuesday afternoon and prior to this they met Priyanka Gandhi to apprise her about the cause of defeat, The anti-Gehlot faction in the party has sent a report to the party leadership that Gehlot was busy campaigning for his son and he took a casual interest in other constituencies.
The anti-Gehlot faction has brought to the notice of the Congress president Rahul Gandhi that Gehlot addressed 130 rallies in all during the Lok Sabha election and out of this 93 rallies were addressed in the Jodhpur constituency where his son Vaibhav Gehlot was contesting. But despite such heavy campaigning for his son, Vaibhav Gehlot lost to the BJP candidate Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by 2.74 lakh votes.
The big question now is whether to replace Gehlot with Pilot or look for some other leader who could be entrusted the responsibility of the Chief Minister. It’s a very sensitive issue as this could lead to a division in the party and could result in the fall of the Congress government. The Congress has 100 seats and is backed by 13 Independents and six BSP members. The BJP has 73 members in the House.
