Inside story of Ashok Gehlot's 'Game of Throne' – A wily magician versus darling of media

New Delhi: In the one-upmanship game in the Rajasthan Congress so far, chief minister Ashok Gehlot seems to have scored over his former deputy Sachin Pilot.

Gehlot successfully frustrated Pilot’s attempt to dethrone him at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) called on Sunday by the leadership to elect the new chief minister of Rajasthan.

The wily magician proved a tough nut to crack as he displayed his political acumen to send a clear message to the Congress high command that it cannot run roughshod over him, and that he is no Captain Amarinder Singh.

Obviously, there are visible differences between the two. While Gehlot has a great connect with party legislators, leaders and workers, Amarinder was confined to his house with a select few.

The biggest grouse of Congress leaders and workers in Punjab was that the then chief minister largely remained inaccessible. That is not the case with Gehlot as he shares an excellent rapport not only with his party colleagues but even with political rivals in Rajasthan.

NewsDrum has got some inside details about the developments that took place in Jaipur in the run-up to the CLP meeting.

It is said that Pilot’s loyalists had been claiming for the past many days that he had been able to shunt Gehlot from Rajasthan. In fact, Pilot’s loyalists knew on Friday itself that the CLP meeting was going to be held on Sunday when everyone else came to know about it on Saturday night after a tweet by Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal.

His loyalists had also been claiming that the Congress high command would force Gehlot to resign before filing his nomination papers on September 26. This had enraged the Gehlot camp as it prepared to foil any such attempt.

A Congress leader described it as a “self-goal” by the Pilot camp.

On Sunday when the crisis erupted and legislators loyal to Gehlot rushed to his residence to submit their resignations, Speaker CP Joshi twice called up party general secretary in charge of Rajasthan Ajay Maken but he did not answer the phone calls.

The argument given by the Gehlot camp legislators was that a person who had revolted against the chief minister and nearly brought down the Congress government in Rajasthan in July 2020 with the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is unacceptable to them.

Holding a parallel meeting at the residence of minister Shanti Kumar Dhariwal, the legislators passed three resolutions. These were that Gehlot should continue to be the chief minister till the declaration of the results of the Congress president’s election on October 19, secondly, the next chief minister should be among the 102 legislators who stayed loyal to the party during Pilot’s rebellion and thirdly Gehlot should be consulted before finalising his successor.

Ever since his failed coup against Gehlot, Pilot has never sought to mend fences with the chief minister. Congress leaders pointed out that as it had now become abundantly clear that Gehlot is moving to Delhi as the next Congress president, Pilot should have made some attempts to seek rapprochement with the veteran leader. The media presented the young Gujjar leader as the most popular face in Rajasthan and a credible alternative to Gehlot though the ground situation did not back such claims.

A number of questions have also arisen over how the Congress high command plunged the state into a deep political crisis with its inept handling of the transition of power.

Knowing Gehlot and his refusal to leave Rajasthan, the leadership should have consulted him before calling the CLP meeting and also on finalising his successor. Though it was not mandatory, his nod was imperative for a smooth transition of power.

Any move to remove Gehlot before filing the nomination papers would have hurt his ego. It was enough to show that he is going to be a lame duck or a proxy Congress president while the Gandhi family would continue to hold sway. That was not acceptable to him.