From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has a new game plan to have his say as the Congress high command after his election as the Congress president to decide who takes over from him as the chief minister.
He dropped hints on Friday that he would file his nomination papers soon for the party president’s election, but that does not require him to first resign as the chief minister since the issue of Udaipur resolve highlighted by Rahul Gandhi as “one man, one post” comes into play only after he wins the election.
Gehlot has made it clear that the Gandhis can not impose his arch rival Sachin Pilot as the chief minister as interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi ceases to exercise that power, once the nominations for the presidential elections begin on Saturday as that decision will be taken by whosoever succeeds her as the Congress President.
He also hinted that as the new party president, he would let the Rajasthan Congress MLAs decide whomsoever they want to choose as their leader to become the chief minister and he would nominate one if the MLAs empower him as the party president to nominate one as has been the age-old tradition in the Congress.
Rahul Gandhi, who had a day’s break from a rest day of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kerala on Friday, had consultations with Sonia Gandhi on how to install Sachin Pilot as the chief minister, scuttling Gehlot’s attempt to continue at least until the election of the Congress President on October 17.
The party sources ruled out any chance of Rahul or any family member entering the Congress President’s fray. They said he was here, but he, alongwith his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, is returning to Kerala to resume the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Saturday.
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