By the time poor Rahul Gandhi completes his so called Bharat Jodo Yatra, not sure how many more Congress state units will disintegrate like Goa. Rajasthan seems to be an imminent next one.
The Congress family high command thought that they will give a carrot of the party President post to Ashok Gehlot thinking that he will bite on it happily and leave the Rajasthan Chief Minister post to Rahul Gandhi’s man, Sachin Pilot. Gehlot being too shrewd for the family didn’t buy that so easily. He started giving feelers that one can be a party President and also be a CM at the same time. We heard subsequently that Sonia Gandhi has put her foot down and has asked him to follow the recent party decision of one man for one post. Gehlot seemed to have agreed as a Sonia Gandhi loyalist. However, as it goes in typical politics, the “emotions” of Gehlot’s loyalists has suddenly risen and they don’t want Gehlot to step down from the CM post. Typical, Bollywood style sequence playing out.
Now, the question that Gehlot will pose to Sonia Gandhi is that he never cared for any post and will do whatever she wants him to do but she has to deal with the disappointed MLAs in Rajasthan, nearly 90 of them as per the claims, who have threatened to resign. What a great way of being a winner either way? It is now checkmate for Sonia Gandhi.
On the other side, Sachin Pilot would have seen himself so close to his dream job but probably has been rudely shaken and woken up to confront the reality. The reality is Gehlot will not let him become the CM so easily. The family high command now has to choose between him and Gehlot’s MLAs. He also knows that similar to Punjab they will be helpless. They have to sacrifice him in order to save the government in Rajasthan.
It will now be very interesting to see what Sachin Pilot will do next. It is high time he takes the uncomfortable decision. It is very clear that until Gehlot is there at the helm, he does not have any political future in Rajasthan. Will the family take the tough decision of going against Gehlot and his coterie and take his side? The probability of that happening is just about 5%.
I am quite confident that this time Sachin Pilot will not bow down to some baseless promises of Rahul Gandhi, banking on whom he has been patiently waiting for so very long , tolerating the humiliation being heaped on him by Gehlot. He will either take his flock and join his friend, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is getting all his due in BJP today or he might go to AAP who will promise to make him their sole king of Rajasthan. AAP opportunity will be really enticing but Sachin again has to wait to develop, build the base and then think of becoming the CM. BJP seems to be a smarter choice especially when this party is looking for a young face to take the reins from Vasundhara Raje. Sachin will have a clear trajectory there. Modi’s BJP is a party that is known to take hard decisions like they are taking in Madhya Pradesh by steadily positioning the young Scindia to take the baton from Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Clearly, Sachin Pilot seems to be the Eknath Shinde in the making in Rajasthan, if he can get around 35 MLAs to back him and help BJP form the government. If he cannot, it will still be good to join BJP, build his base there and become CM in the next assembly elections. I can’t wait to see how this unfolds this time.
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