The Ashok Gehlot camp on Monday targeted Congress in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken, accusing him of being involved in a “conspiracy” to remove the chief minister and promoting Sachin Pilot for the post. Without naming Sachin Pilot, he said that the state “MLAs will not tolerate traitors being rewarded”.
Launching a fierce attack on Maken, Rajasthan Congress MLA Shanti Kumar Dhariwal said: “A general secretary secretary is himself canvassing to make such people CM, MLAs had to get angry, disgruntled. MLAs asked me to listen to their voice. They want someone from 102 MLAs who huddled together to stay with Congress for over 34 days (in 2020) to be made CM.”
“It was 100 per cent a conspiracy to remove the CM (Ashok Gehlot) … and general secretary incharge was a part of it. I am not talking about anyone else, no charge on Kharge but only the general secretary incharge,” he added.
Dhariwal, a Gehlot loyalist, also recalled the 2020 revolt by Pilot when he, along with 18 MLAs, camped in the national capital, bringing the government on the brink of collapse.
“In 2020, when state Congress was in trouble, our President Sonia Gandhi had asked that govt be saved at any cost. Despite having CM in Rajasthan, traitors claimed govt has fallen, only came back when session was called, they’re being made CM now,” he said.
“CM Gehlot has always followed the instructions of the High Command. The High Command had (back in 2020)asked him to accommodate those in wrong & he accepted what was asked (to include Sachin Pilot),” Dhariwal added.
The sharp attack came after Congress observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Maken briefed party president Sonia Gandhi about the developments in Rajasthan and are expected to submit a written report about the crisis in the party’s state unit latest by Tuesday.
Talking to reporters after a nearly one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting with Gandhi, AICC in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken said the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting was organised with the consent of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and termed the act of the MLAs loyal to him to hold a parallel meeting as “indiscipline”.
According to Maken, the representatives of the MLAs loyal to the chief minister put forward three conditions, including that the decision on the next chief minister would be taken by the new party president.
“How is it possible that the person moving the resolution authorises the Congress president… That person wants to fight AICC president polls and if he wins the polls, he would decide on it? If this is not conflict of interest, what is?” he said in a reference to Gehlot.
Maken said the MLAs loyal to Gehlot wanted to meet in groups as opposed to the high command’s order to meet them separately, saying there was no precedent to such an act in the party.
Source: dnaindia.com