How Congress observers aggravated the Rajasthan crisis?

New Delhi: The two central observers – Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken – appointed by president Sonia Gandhi to ensure a smooth transition of power in Rajasthan appear to have worsened the matters for the grand old party.

Both Kharge and Maken, who is also the party general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan, were given the mandate to oversee the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on Sunday and elect chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s successor.

Gehlot was to fill his nomination papers for the Congress president’s election the next day on Monday.

It is learned that the two central observers had been given the specific task of ensuring Gehlot hands over the baton to his bete noire Sachin Pilot.

This was not the first time that the Congress high command wanted to install its nominee as a chief minister in any state. It has happened in the past and rarely has the move met with such resistance. The observers would implement the high command’s directive in a subtle but effective way.

In this case, Maken visibly mishandled the situation.

Gehlot loyalist and state minister Shanti Dhariwal alleged that Maken was lobbying for Pilot and had even called some legislators before the CLP meeting on Sunday. Dhariwal claimed to have proof of his allegation.

If true, this was perhaps the first time in the grand old party that a central observer had openly canvassed for anyone.

Gehlot loyalists are opposed to Pilot’s nomination on the ground that he led a revolt against the chief minister in July 2020 and almost brought down the Congress government in Rajasthan. They further alleged that he had revolted at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It is further said that Speaker CP Joshi tried to talk to Maken when the legislators descended on his residence with their resignations. But Maken apparently did not answer Joshi’s phone calls.

And then he refused to meet Gehlot when the chief minister went to the hotel where the two central observers were staying. Kharge did meet him but Maken left for Delhi as soon as he came to know that Gehlot was coming to meet him.

Also, Maken’s press conference about the developments further enraged the legislators. While Kharge preferred to remain silent on the developments, Maken publicly attacked Gehlot and his supporters, thus escalating the situation.

In his report submitted to the Congress president, Maken spared Gehlot but recommended strong disciplinary action against his loyalists Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi and Dharmendra Rathore for holding a parallel meeting.

The move is bound to intensify the crisis and could prompt Gehlot loyalists to harden their stand. However, some sort of reconciliation and reproaching is expected when Gehlot meets Sonia Gandhi.

But this is also not the first time that Maken has come under fire for his handling of party affairs. In September last year, he was sent as an observer to Punjab to oversee the CLP meeting to elect the successor of the then chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

The meeting after hours of deliberations eventually elected Dalit leader Charanjit Singh Channi as Amarinder’s successor. Though the move was billed as a masterstroke for Punjab has the highest Dalit population (32%) in the country, it infuriated the then state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was a frontrunner for the chief minister’s post.

The frequent run-ins between Sidhu and Channi caused irreparable damage to the Congress as a result of which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) registered a stunning victory in the assembly elections in February this year.

Maken could not even win the Rajya Sabha elections from Haryana this year as he failed to secure the required number of votes despite the Congress being in a comfortable position. While Kuldeep Bishnoi cross-voted, the vote of his adversary Kiran Choudhry was declared invalid, resulting in the win of BJP-backed independent Kartikeya Sharma.

Delhi Congress leaders also blame Maken for the diminished graph of the grand old party in the city-state.