Several MLAs loyal to Gehlot, who was seen as the frontrunner for the post of Congress national president, had last week submitted their resignation letters over a possible move to appoint Pilot as the next Rajasthan CM.
However, Gehlot later pulled back his candidature for the Congress presidential polls as he took moral responsibility for the political crisis in the state. He said that 80-90% of MLAs switch sides when a new CM is going to be appointed but this did not happen in Rajasthan.
"When a CM is engaged, 80-90% of MLAs leave him and switch sides. They turn to the new candidate. I too don't consider it wrong. But it was a new case in Rajasthan where the MLAs got agitated just in the name of the new chief minister," said Gehlot without naming Sachin Pilot directly, as quoted by PTI.
He was further asked about the chances of the chief minister being changed now. Gehlot responded that it is for the party's high command to decide. "I am doing my work. It is for the top brass to take a decision," the chief minister added.
The senior Congress leader also asked the people to send suggestions about the next budget directly to him, hinting that he was there to stay. He declared that he cannot remain away from the Rajasthan people 'till his last breath'.
"My objective is to bring the Congress government back to power in Rajasthan after the next polls. It is important for the revival of the party at the national level," he said.
Hours before the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting that was to be convened at the chief minister's residence last Sunday, MLAs loyal to Gehlot had held a parallel meeting at the residence of parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal against any move of the party to make Pilot the new chief minister after Gehlot resigned in order to contest the Congress president elections.
They skipped the CLP meeting and went to speaker CP Joshi's residence and submitted their resignation. Their demand was to choose someone as the new chief minister from the 102 MLAs who supported Gehlot during the political crisis in July 2020 which happened due to rebellion of the then deputy chief minister and the 18 other Congress MLAs against Gehlot's leadership.
AICC general secretary in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken and then leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who is now contesting the Congress president elections, were sent by the party high command as observers to Rajasthan to hold the CLP meeting.
(With PTI inputs)
