New Delhi: There is going to be a status quo in Rajasthan likely till the Congress Plenary Session in March 2023, informed sources, said ahead of both Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot reaching Delhi on Friday. “I don’t see the situation in the state changing before the plenary session next year,” a senior AICC functionary said on condition of anonymity.
The two leaders will be in the national capital days after AICC in charge of Rajasthan Ajay Maken resigned from his post over indecision in a case of indiscipline involving three senior state leaders, considered close to the Chief Minister. The three state leaders, Shanti Kumar Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi and Dharmendra Rathore had been given separate notices in September asking them to explain why they did not support an AICC plan on September 25 to ensure a change of guard in Rajasthan.
The state leaders were up against the AICC's move to replace Gehlot with Pilot and the notices for grave indiscipline were given to them to convey the anger of then-party chief Sonia Gandhi.
In her wisdom, Sonia Gandhi deferred a decision on the notices as the party’s presidential polls were to be held on October 17 and she thought the new party chief should take a call. Mallikarjun Kharge took charge as the new Congress chief on October 26 but soon got busy with the more pressing issue of supervising the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat polls, pushing aside the Rajasthan matter.
Maken was miffed that though the three state rebels had submitted their replies to the AICC disciplinary committee headed by veteran AK Antony, the new party chief still did not take any action.
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What further upset the Maken camp was that instead of facing any disciplinary action, the three state leaders were recently given the responsibility of managing the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo yatra, which will enter Rajasthan in December. This provoked Maken to resign, expressing his unwillingness to continue as the state in charge and urging Kharge to appoint someone else to the post ahead of the yatra’s Rajasthan leg.
Before Maken’s pressure tactics, Pilot too had flagged the issue saying any delay in deciding the case of indiscipline would not convey a good message across the party. According to sources, Gehlot is directly supervising the Gujarat polls and it would not be practical to disturb him by taking action against his aides now. The high command is keeping watch on the situation in the state but wants to take action only at the right time. The plenary would be a more suitable occasion for any change of guard, they said.
In an indication that the high command is seized by indiscipline by the three senior state leaders, the AICC sent a message to them by excluding their names from the list of star campaigners for the Sardarshahar assembly by-poll while retaining Maken in the chart, the sources added.
