The Rajasthan drama seems to have overtaken the Congress Presidential election. One fallout is that Ashok Gehlot is no longer the Gandhi family’s official candidate for the post. Congress sources claim that the Gandhis are busy scouting for another candidate, and that they have been advised (some say by Prashant Kishor who has kept his line of communication open with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra) that they should opt for a Dalit face. Hence the names of Malikarjun Kharge, Mukul Wasnik and Sushil Kumar Shinde are doing the rounds at 24 Akbar Road. Of these, Kharge is the most trusted but he is too obvious a rubber stamp. Not that this has bothered the Gandhis earlier but it does take away from the optics of a democratic election. On another note, till date Shashi Tharoor has not been able to find the requisite 10 PCC delegates to propose his name as no one wants to take on the High Command and endorse anyone who doesn›t have the Gandhis› blessings, though he may have got Sonia Gandhi›s nod.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath›s name is also doing the rounds as he was summoned to Delhi to meet Sonia Gandhi earlier this evening. While Kamal Nath is a veteran Congress leader who would be acceptable to all the camps within the Congress, from the G 23 to the loyalists, from Gehlot to Sachin Pilot; will Rahul Gandhi trust him enough with the family seat? That is a key question. Also, Kamal Nath is not too keen to come to the centre for he has been busy crafting a Congress comeback in Madhya Pradesh and the party did very well in the recent panchayat elections under his leadership. Nath could also be used by the Gandhis to reach out to Gehlot for he is one of the few who has the stature to chalk out a compromise in Rajasthan.
What will happen in Rajasthan? Ajay Maken who was sent as an observer to oversee the change of guard from Gehlot to Sachin Pilot left Jaipur without meeting Gehlot. After a two hour meeting at 10, Janpath, Maken briefed the media stating that he and Kharge had been asked to prepare a report which they would submit to Sonia Gandhi the next day. This is clearly a tactic to delay for everyone knows what happened in Rajasthan. As many as 90 of the 102 MLAs went public with their decision to resign if Gehlot was to be removed as CM. Given this kind of support, can the party high command afford to take strict disciplinary action against Gehlot and risk losing the state government? The only face saving compromise here could be if Gehlot agrees to a nominee that is acceptable to both him and Sachin Pilot›s camp. In which case, CP Joshi, Speaker of the Rajasthan Assembly could well emerge as the consensus candidate.
The conspiracy theorists within the party claim that this is going according to script. That Rahul Gandhi had an inkling of Ashok Gehlot›s true nature four years ago when Gehlot refused the offer to be organisational general secretary and wanted to go to the state as Chief Minister. So the spin is that the one reason why Rahul Gandhi insisted on a change of guard at Rajathan before the Presidential polls was to see if Gehlot would expose himself or prove to be a loyal soldier. Having been burnt by the Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri experiments, the Gandhis are very wary of vacating the top job for anyone other than a loyalist who can be remote controlled. And the events in Rajasthan have proved that Gehlot is not so malleable. In fact, some within the Congress do not rule out Rahul Gandhi›s candidature at the last minute, orchestrated by a chorus of loyal sycophants. But, those who know Rahul well state that he is very firm about having a non-Gandhi occupy the President›s chair. The only catch is that it has to be a very pliable pro-Gandhis non-Gandhi. As Gehlot has shown, that is easier fantasied about, than delivered.