Cabinet Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, who had accompanied Gehlot to Jaisalmer earlier in the day, said 92 MLAs were at the door of speaker CP Joshi, while independent lawmaker and advisor to CM Gehlot Sanyam Lodha set the number of resignations. at 83. By midnight, the MLAs had returned home after resigning. Minister Saleh Mohammad confirmed that the resignation had been submitted. The CLP meeting, after being rescheduled twice in the evening, was canceled as Gehlot’s supporters did not show up at his residence.
“They are angry and said that Sonia Gandhi ji and Rahul Gandhi ji should listen to them and not choose the next CM from any of those who have rebelled (against Gehlot in 2020),” Khachariyawas said. He insisted that it is not a riot. “This is a way to send their message to the central leadership of the party. These MLAs ask why a CLP meeting was called before the AICC presidential election?
Lodha said the next CM should be chosen “from the 102 MLAs in Congress who stood firmly on the party’s side during the 35-day crisis in 2020, and not from the MLAs who camped out in Manesar (Haryana).”
Real-time updates on Rajasthan’s political crisis
Congress has 108 MLAs in the House of 200 while BJP has 71, RLP 3, BTP and CPM 2 each and RJD 1. There are 13 independents.
Until about 11:45 pm, Khachariyawas and his colleague Shanti Dhariwal were in talks with AICC observers Ajay Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge to convey Gehlot’s loyalists’ doubts about the CLP meeting. Government Minister Govindram Meghwal also questioned the “haste” in calling a CLP meeting ahead of the Congressional presidential poll that Gehlot will contest.
For most of the day, Gehlot’s loyalists had been encamped at the Dhariwal residence, clearing up their disagreement with the decision to authorize interim Congressional chief Sonia Gandhi to choose the next prime minister through an approved one-line resolution. from the CLP. For her part, Gehlot said the party would follow the convention and give Sonia full authority to choose her successor.
The scenes in Dhariwal’s residence, seen as Gehlot’s problem-solving tool, suggested that his loyalists did not share this view. Late in the evening, most ministers and MLAs, including some independents, openly said they would not accept as CM anyone between Sachin Pilot and the 18 lawmakers who revolted against the government two years ago. Six of these 18 MLAs met Pilot after reaching Jaipur from Delhi in the afternoon. Unlike Gehlot’s supporters, they were moms on the way to go.
The 19:00 CLP meeting was rescheduled twice before being canceled. The pilot, CCP chief Govind Singh Dotasra, and some MLAs arrived at 8pm. Gehlot, who returned to Jaipur from Jaisalmer in the evening, first met AICC Secretary General Ajay Maken and opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge at a city hotel for nearly an hour starting at 7pm. Sources said Gehlot’s camp feared “political revenge” if Pilot became CM.
Minister Meghwal said: “We want Gehlot to be the head of Congress while continuing to be CM. What happened that suddenly there is such a rush to change CM? That at least the polls (AICC) are over “.
