Congress leadership failed to comprehend that he is unwilling to quit the top office in Rajasthan

The presidential election in the Congress and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s candidature have once again proved the gross ineptitude of the party leadership—that is, of the Gandhis. It is quite evident that, for the umpteenth time, they failed to assess the situation. It looked like, and we editorially commented, that the intra-party election may provide the Gandhis an opportunity to kill two birds with a stone: get a non-family party president, thus blunting the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attacks of the GOP being a family-run party; and putting an end to the Gehlot-Pilot tussle in Rajasthan. But that was not to be. For one, Gehlot was reluctant right from the beginning to give up the top office in Rajasthan for a national role. Apparently, he believes that it is better to rule in Jaipur than to serve in New Delhi, for

becoming party president with the Gandhi family’s blessings means working under their supervision. But reluctance to leave the chief ministerial office is much

different from stubbornly sticking to the demand to have a loyalist in that office at any cost. The

rebellion by over 90 Congress MLAs supporting him has not only displeased the Gandhis but also put his candidature for the president’s post in the grand old party at risk. On Sunday, the 90 MLAs had

threatened to resign if his arch rival Sachin Pilot was made chief minister.

Reportedly feeling “upset and humiliated,” the Gandhis are looking for alternatives to Gehlot for the Congress top post. Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath is said to have arrived in the national capital for a meeting with Sonia Gandhi. All this doesn’t seem to have deterred Gehlot or his MLAs. They refused to talk to Ajay Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge, the high command's emissaries. They wanted the new chief minister to be decided after the next Congress president is elected, Maken told the media, adding that this would be “conflict of interest” as the resolution would be passed when “Gehlot may already be party chief. So, he empowers himself to decide on his own successor in Rajasthan.” That’s a valid point, but Gehlot and his MLAs have dug their heels in over the issue of the next chief minister. That there is rivalry between the 71-year-old Rajasthan Chief Minister and his young challenger is a well-known fact; the rivalry became intense after his unsuccessful rebellion in 2020. But few—and certainly not the Gandhi family—knew that the intensity had crossed the limits within which it could be managed. Is the enmity no more political? Has it become personal? Only Gehlot and Pilot can answer these questions, but it is indisputable that this episode has put yet another question mark over the competence of the Gandhis. How could Rahul Gandhi unite the nation or the Opposition if he can’t unite his own leaders? It is time the top Congress leadership focused on putting its house in order.