New Delhi/Jaipur: Congress Observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken who met Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi were told to submit a written report on the current state of their Legislature Party in Rajasthan whose leader and chief minister Ashok Gehlot set to run for the party chief's post.
"Mallikarjun Kharge and I briefed, in detail, the Congress chief about our meetings in Rajasthan. She asked us for a written report. We will give it to her by tonight or tomorrow," AICC Observer Ajay Maken told the media after meeting Gandhi.
Maken said they would submit their report to Gandhi after which the party's further strategy would be chalked out. He said he and Kharge kept waiting for the party MLAs in Jaipur on Sunday night but they did not turn up.
Maken accused MLAs in the Ashok Gehlot camp of indiscipline and said their demand setting conditions for a party resolution on picking the next chief minister was a conflict of interest. "In the 75 years of Congress history, there has never been a conditional resolution. Resolution is one-line only. Everything is told to the Congress president and then a decision is taken," Maken told reporters here before leaving for New Delhi.
"Resolution should not have any conflict of interest. Those who are contesting elections and tomorrow become party president, they get to decide on the resolution and this is a conflict of interest. So, it is wrong," he said without naming Gehlot.
Kamal Nath enters
The Congress high command had called senior leader Kamal Nath to Delhi. The visit of Kamal Nath, the Madhya Pradesh Congress chief, to Delhi comes amid a political drama in Rajasthan over leadership change following Ashok Gehlot's announcement that he would contest the Congress president polls.
Sources said Kamal Nath enjoys close ties with the Rajasthan chief minister and could be asked to broker a truce. He is likely to play the role of a mediator and try to broker a truce in the state unit, which is reeling under a factional feud after a possible leadership change move turned into a full-blown crisis for the party, the source added.
Kamal Nath ruled himself out as a probable candidate for the party's presidency even as he stepped in to troubleshoot the ongoing crisis in the party's Rajasthan unit. Asked if he was not interested in the post of Congress president, Kamal Nath told reporters, "I have no interest, I have come to Delhi for Navratri."
Dhariwal attacks Maken
Rajasthan minister and key Gehlot-loyalist Shanti Dhariwal launched a frontal attack on Congress' state in-charge Ajay Maken, alleging that he was talking to party MLAs in a partisan manner and canvassing for Sachin Pilot.
Soon after Maken briefed Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the national capital about the political developments in the state, Dhariwal called a press conference at his residence here and hit out at party general secretary Maken. "My allegation against the general secretary and state in-charge (Maken) is that he was talking to the MLAs here in a partisan manner. For many days there were continuous reports that he used to ask for campaigning in favour of Sachin Pilot.
"He used to ask MLAs to join him (Pilot) and we have proof of this," he alleged. The minister further said, "We are soldiers of Sonia Gandhi. I have not been accused of indiscipline even once in the last 50 years. "If the party general secretary and in-charge has come up with a mission to make such people (who rebel against the party) as the chief minister, then the MLAs were bound to be angry."
