Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has finally proved himself to be the real “Chanakya” of Rajasthan politics. Weathering all the challenges over the last one month, Gehlot ultimately sailed through the crisis and saved his government. At the same time, the chief minister also gave a strong message to the BJP.
The Rajasthan crisis on Monday blew over after rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot met Rahul Gandhi at his 12, Tughlaq Road residence and fell in line and ended the revolt without any condition. Pilot stayed at Rahul Gandhi’s government residence for one-and-a-half hour during which AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also there.
Right from day one, Gehlot has been asking rebels to go and apologise to the high command and in return, the top leadership will hug them. Sachin Pilot’s willingness to meet Rahul Gandhi is being seen as a response to Gehlot’s appeal to the rebels.
This development was followed by a second meeting at Ashok Gehlot’s residence in Jaipur. Suspended rebel MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma, who circulated several videos of his statement against the chief minister, went to meet Gehlot and accepted him as his leader.
It was Bhanwarlal who had met Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal on Sunday night and appealed to the rebels for return to the party fold. Sources say that all the rebel MLAs who were once with Sachin Pilot have revolted now to be back to the party. Most of them had even contacted the Congress leaders and Gehlot, expressing their wish to come back to the party.
Even BJP leaders, who were handling the operation from behind the curtains, had stopped backing these rebel leaders. After all this, Pilot had also no option whatsoever but to fall in line.
Meanwhile, Gehlot sent out a strong message to the BJP that the Congress is capable of giving a befitting reply to such activities aimed at sabotage. By ensuring return of rebels, Gehlot has given a gift to Sonia Gandhi on a day when she had become interim president of the party a year ago.
Gehlot’s strategy to save his government remained quite foolproof right from the beginning. He made it a point to keep his flock of 103 MLAs together. The BJP and Sachin Pilot could not break their unity. In the meantime, the BJP’s strategy got derailed after an audio tape surfaced. The BJP was also divided over the move to topple the government. Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had during her Delhi visit told the high command that it is unfair to dislodge an elected government. After this, the BJP got worried about the unity of its own legislators. What lent credence to this impression was that the BJP started shifting its MLAs to Gujarat. But only 20 of 72 MLAs could be shifted. The BJP was then seen on the back-foot. The Congress rebels grew restless after seeing BJP in a panic. The aggrieved MLAs started looking for an option to end all this.
Soon after leaving Manesar, some MLAs contacted senior Congress leaders in Delhi, while others contacted the chief minister. Sources say a few also met Ahmed Patel, who was keeping a close watch on every development. When it was confirmed that Pilot will come back without condition, he was allowed to meet the high command all alone. As per this strategy, Pilot met Rahul and Priyanka. Soon after meeting Pilot, Rahul and Priyanka had a meeting with Sonia Gandhi. After directions from Sonia Gandhi, Venugopal issued a statement giving information about the meeting of Pilot with Rahul Gandhi. He also informed about a threemember committee to probe the grievances of the rebels.
With this, it is curtains to the Rajasthan crisis. According to sources, these rebel legislators will not be given any post for now. The high command will take a call after the committee submits its report.
