How Ashok Gehlot managed the crisis
NEWDELHI:RAJASTHAN chief minister Ashok Gehlot won a vote of confidence in the assembly on Friday with the ruling Congress party hoping political uncertainties that erupted in the state in mid-july was over for now.
As the crisis — triggered by the rebellion by now-dismissed deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and doused by a truce call earlier this week — unfolded, Gehlot had his task cut out. He had to fight a two-pronged battle — on internal and external fronts. In the end, the outcome was in his favour.
While central Congress leaders credit former party president Rahul Gandhi with breaking the ice — he met Pilot on Monday before the announcement on the breakthrough — Gehlot monitored the efforts on the ground to rescue his government.
A challenge for him was to keep the over 100 legislators loyal to him (including those representing allies) together.
Hence, they were first taken to the Fairmont Hotel on the outskirts of Jaipur on July 13, a move aimed to ensure there are no defections in the ranks. Then, the MLAS were shifted to a resort in Jaisalmer on July 31. They returned to Jaipur only on Thursday, a day before the commencement of the assembly session and after the truce declaration.
His first moral victory came soon after the rebellion began. On July 12, three rebel MLAS of the Congress — Chetan Dudi, Danish Abrar and Rohit Bohra — came back to the party fold after Gehlot spoke to them through Bohra’s father Pradyman Singh.
And then, Gehlot identified three independents — Kushveer Singh, Suresh Tak and Om Prakash Hudla — in the Pilot camp who the chief minister thought could return. They expressed their inability to do so even though Gehlot, through his emissaries, got in touch with them.
“This gave him confidence that the government was safe,” a second senior Congress functionary said, requesting anonymity.
Till the end of the tussle and before the peace deal, Pilot had the support of 18 Congress dissidents and the three independents. Gehlot also attacked the BJP’S central leadership, accusing it of trying to topple the government — a charge repeatedly denied by the opposition party.