Jaipur: Amid the political crisis in Rajasthan over the successor of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Congress observer Ajay Maken dubbed the “unofficial” meeting conducted by state minister Shanti Dhariwal with the rebel MLAs of the Ashok Gehlot camp an “indisciplined move”.
UPDATES
- Ajay Maken, who will return to Delhi today after the Gehlot camp MLAs refused to meet the observers said that Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi, and Pratap Singh met them as the representatives of the MLAs and put three conditions.
- Congress MLAs insisted that the resolution be in line with 3 conditions, to which he said that never in the history of Congress has any resolution been passed with strings attached to it.
- He further termed the conditions a clear conflict of interest.
- He said that “We waited for more MLAs to come, but they didn’t. Mallikarjun Kharge and I are going to Delhi to submit our report to the Congress chief.
- Sachin Pilot is Congress leadership’s top choice for Rajasthan chief minister if Gehlot wins the Congress presidential elections.
- Both the observers are likely to meet around 90 MLAs who have tendered their resignation to Assembly Speaker.
- Meanwhile, sources confirmed to newswire ANI that Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken will come to Delhi on Monday and submit the report to the top leadership. Miffed MLAs are not ready to meet the observers. The next step will be decided after the discussion with the High Command.
- Earlier, state legislator Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said that all the MLAs are angry and are resigning as they were not consulted before the decision.
- In the meeting, there are chances that a resolution will be passed relating to the change of leadership in Rajasthan.
- Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot is also likely to resign from his post before filing his nomination for the Congress President poll.
- On Saturday, Ajay Maken had a meeting with Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi.
- Filing of nominations for the post of Congress president began on Saturday with a contest between Ashok Gehlot and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor on the cards.
- The nominations will be filed till September 30 and results declaring the new Congress chief will be announced on October 19.
- This will be the first time in 25 years that Congress will see a non-Gandhi chief after Sonia Gandhi replaced Sitaraman Kesri as party chief in 1998.