Rajasthan: Congress not to name CM candidate

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has decided not to declare any chief ministerial candidate in Rajasthan going to polls this year end, a top party source said.

There have been exceptions as in the case of Punjab where Capt. Amarinder Singh was projected, but Rahul has gone by the party's long-standing policy not to go to the polls with a CM face.

In case of Rajasthan, there are two obvious faces of State Congress President Sachin Pilot(40) and AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot(68), a former chief minister. Rahul, however, found disadvantage of projecting either and asked all leaders in the state to collectively contest for ousting the BJP government from the state, the source said.

He said there is no truth in the media reports that Rahul made Gehlot the AICC general secretary and gave him the vital task of the organisation to remain confined to Delhi to give a clean field to Pilot to lead the party in the polls as a CM candidate. Gehlot will be equally active in the state during the poll campaign as the party recognises the vast pockets of support enjoys in the state, the source said.

Pointing out that the chief minister will be chosen only after the elections, the source said the same strategy was adopted by Rahul in Madhya Pradesh where he gave key positions to Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia to strengthen hands of state Congress chief Kamal Nath to let all work together to first win the election and then the party will decide who has to be the CM. Madhya Pradesh is among the states that go to polls along with Rajasthan.