Rahul’s delay leads to bitterness amongst hopefuls

Avoidable delay in taking a firm decision on who should be appointed as Chief Ministers in the three states won by the Congress in the recent Assembly elections, has resulted in bitterness that could impact the party’s prospects in the 2019 Parliamentary polls. By sitting on the matter, in order to portray his democratic style of functioning, party president Rahul Gandhi has allowed acute factionalism to come to the fore. The differences between Kamal Nath, the eventual choice in Madhya Pradesh, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, as also among Ashok Gehlot, the Chief Minister designate in Rajasthan, and his deputy, Sachin Pilot could create problems in the foreseeable future.

In fact, Sachin Pilot and his supporters appeared to be in a challenging mode and were reluctant to accept the verdict if it was against them. Members of the Gurjar community, to which Pilot belongs, marched out on the streets with the purpose of mounting pressure on Rahul. The Gurjars have a large vote bank in Rajasthan and elsewhere, and the logic was apparent that if Pilot was not selected, the community could review its support for the Congress. Close associates of Pilot were adamant that if he did not stake his claim now, he would continue to be ignored in the future as well. Therefore, throwing the hat in the ring was mandatory. The high command bowed to their wishes and declared him to be the Deputy Chief Minister.

The dilemma before Rahul was evidently that of making a generational change in the Congress or wait till