Gehlot met with nearly two dozen Congress lawmakers late Tuesday at his home and assured them that everything was great and that they should have faith in Gandhi.
Jaipur: After filing his nomination for the position of party president, Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, departed for New Delhi on Wednesday night to meet with the Congress leadership.
According to sources, the chief minister boarded a special jet for New Delhi around 9.30 p.m. His strategy was altered three times during the day. Some ministers and MLAs showed up at the CM’s house before his arrival to see him.
Following the meeting, Cabinet Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas told reporters that the chief minister would leave for Delhi at 5 p.m. today to represent the sentiments of the party’s 102 MLAs.
Speaker C P Joshi, state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra, minister Shanti Dhariwal, and Mahesh Joshi, in addition to Khachariyawas, met with the chief minister.
According to Khachariyawas, the meeting was normal, and Gehlot’s contact with the Speaker was no exception.
He stated that whether or not the CM will run for party president is a matter of high leadership.
In response to an inquiry, he stated, “The chief minister is not resigning as of today.”
Gehlot’s visit comes a day after the Congress summoned three of his supporters-Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi, and Dharmendra Rathore-for “severe indiscipline.”
The party’s disciplinary committee has asked the three to explain why action should not be taken against them within 10 days after the observers for Rajasthan, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken, charged them with “severe indiscipline” in their report to party chief Sonia Gandhi.
The step was taken after 82 MLAs attended a parallel meeting at Dhariwal’s residence in Jaipur, laying down conditions for the party and failing to attend the official legislature party conference held to adopt a resolution authorising the Congress head to pick a successor to Gehlot.
Gehlot was considered a favourite for the position of Congress president and had Sonia Gandhi’s support. The latest developments have harmed his chances of becoming the party’s leader, but he is still in the running.
Amid the uncertainty surrounding Gehlot’s fate, the party’s central election authority chairman, Madhusudan Mistry, stated on Tuesday that AICC treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal had collected nomination forms, but they might be for someone else. Bansal has stated that he would not run in the election.
Shashi Tharoor will file his candidacy papers for the Congress chief’s election on September 30, according to Mistry, and his representative received two more nomination forms on Wednesday.
Mistry stated that he met with party chief Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath apartment and presented her with a QR-coded identity card for the party president’s election.
He later met with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and handed him his identity card. RDK PTI AG
