New Delhi: Congress General Secretary, Ajay Maken has resigned as the party’s in-charge for Rajasthan, days after writing a letter to party president Mallikarjun Kharge, saying he no longer wishes to continue in the post.
Sources close to Maken said the party leadership tried to persuade him to withdraw his decision but failed.
Maken’s letter to Kharge was seen as an attempt to mount pressure on the party high command to break the impasse arising out of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s refusal to make way for a young leadership in the state.
Ahead of the party’s presidential election, the Gandhi family is said to be keen to replace Gehlot as chief minister of Rajasthan, with Sachin Pilot, who was tipped to become the next party president. Accordingly, a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party was called in Jaipur on 25 September. A large section of MLAs loyal to Gehlot did not attend the meeting.
Maken and Kharge, who were appointed by Delhi as senior observers for the meeting, were kept in wait at the chief minister’s residence, while over 90 of the party’s 107 MLAs waited at Gehlot loyalist Shanti Dhariwal’s house. Parallel meeting. All this happened in the presence of Mallikarjun Kharge, who later became the national president of the party.
The incident took place weeks before the Congress presidential election, in which Kharge was elected as the new party chief.
In a one-page letter, Maken mentioned the incident and said that it is in the interest of the party to have a new in-charge.
He also said it was “imperative” to have a new in-charge at the earliest since the party’s mega-walkathon, Bharat Jodo Yatra, entered the state in the first week of December. He told that there is also a by-election on December 4.
In the letter, Maken also said that he wanted to work with trade unions and NGOs in Delhi and focus on civic issues.
ThePrint has learned that Maken believes that a clear decision on the Rajasthan leadership must be taken firmly and soon after the September 25 incident.
The apparent rebellion of Gehlot loyalists that evening stemmed from the belief that the Congress high command wanted to replace the chief minister with its rival Sachin Pilot. At the time, Gehlot was the frontrunner for the post of party president, and if elected, would have had to give up the post of chief minister due to the Congress’s “one person, one post” rule.
Sources said these leaders boycotted thinking that the decision to replace Gehlot would be announced at the CLP meeting.
The factionalism between Gehlot and Sachin Pilot over the chief minister’s chair has been public since 2020.
Days after the September 25 incident, Gehlot took moral responsibility and dropped out of the race for Congress president, apologizing to the then party president Sonia Gandhi.
He also said that the CLP meeting was called to pass a standard one-line resolution authorizing the Congress president to take a call on the state leadership. The party sought an immediate report from Kharge and Maken on those responsible for the incident, following which show-cause notices were issued to CLP leader and minister Shanti Dhariwal, minister and chief whip Mahesh Joshi and MLA Dharmendra Rathore.
Following Gehlot’s apology, the party’s general secretary in charge of organization KC Venugopal – who was present during Gehlot’s meeting with Sonia after the fiasco – said a decision on the Rajasthan leadership would be taken in “two to three days”.
A month and a half after this incident and almost 3 weeks after Kharge became the president, a decision is yet to be taken.
Sources said this upset Maken as the Show Cause MLA was coordinating the yatra led by Rahul Gandhi. A senior AICC functionary told ThePrint: “With what moral authority will Ajay Maken go to Rajasthan to organize Rahul Gandhi’s visit, if the same people who made a mockery of the CLP meeting are coordinating it?”
Pilot remained engaged as an observer for the Himachal Pradesh elections till 12 November, which concluded that day.
Meanwhile, Gehlot, as a senior observer, is busy campaigning for the party in Gujarat, where elections will be held in the first week of December.
Crisis looming in Rajasthan
After Gehlot’s apology and Kharge’s appointment, the Congress high command has made no mention of the Rajasthan incident or the leadership change in the state.
However, a leadership crisis seems to be brewing in the state with ministers and MLAs repeatedly taking potshots at each other.
After being served the show-cause notice, Congress MLA from Osian Divya Maderna – who is a scion of the influential Jat political family, the Madernas – has relentlessly targeted Joshi and Dhariwal for allegedly instigating the MLAs to break party discipline .
Similarly, minister Rajendra Guda has accused Dhariwal of corruption and targeted him and Joshi over the September 25 incident.
Earlier this month, Guda also hit out at Gehlot, saying that all government appointments, from constable to DG, were done at the behest of the chief minister. Last week, Guda also spoke in favor of Pilot becoming the chief minister.
Guda supported Pilot’s comments, saying the high command should take a decision on those responsible for the September 25 incident, pointing to Gehlot.
Meanwhile, Pilot is busy targeting Gehlot. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Gehlot at an event this month, Pilot compared him to former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. Azad, who recently made an acrimonious exit from the party, was praised by the Prime Minister last year as well.
Last week, former Rajasthan minister Harish Chowdhary hit out at Gehlot over the CM’s stand on OBC reservation in the state, accusing him of not resolving it.
Read also: Congress will benefit from ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in coming days: Sachin Pilot