The Gehlot loyalists who did something not short of a rebellion against the party’s high command have found a reason to claim that there are different yardsticks for different people in congress. They refer to the insistence of the party’s high command on Gehlot resigning from the post of Chief Minister of Rajasthan prior to the scheduled election of congress presidential elections in which Gehlot was named as one of the contenders.
It is being pointed out that Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who later filed his nomination papers for the Congress president’s election, was not asked to resign from the post of LoP in Rajya sabha.
When it was the case of Ashok Gehlot, the high command and especially observers like Ajay Maken invoked party’s ‘one-man, one-post’ norm adopted at the three-day ‘Chintan Shivir (brainstorming session)’ at Udaipur in May this year. Ajay maken, percieved to be lobbying actively for Sachin Pilot wanted Ashok gehlot to resign first. The logic being, if Gehlot becomes party president, he would have better leverage for chosing his successor as Rajashthan CM and it was less likely that it could have been Sachin Pilot.
This insistence became the bone of contention between the high command and the state unit. It is widely beleived that Gehlot himself orchestred the rebellion and gave all indications of not willing to leave the CM’s chair. The crisis ultimately resulted in Gehlot apologising for, one can not be sure of- for inciting the rebellion or for not accepting the bid to run for president.
Mallikarjun Kharge submitted his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi after filing his nomination papers. An LoP in Rajya Sabha enjoys the status of a cabinet minister. The LoP is a member belonging to the largest opposition party in a House. Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha can have separate LoPs. In the current Lok Sabha, there is no LoP as no party has the requisite numbers to claim the post. As per norms, the post is given to a party that has a minimum of 10% strength of the total strength of a House.
Also Read: Ashok Gehlot: Congress’s 90-Day Strategy To Build Core, Win Mass Trust
