Gehlot out of Cong's Chief race, Mallikarjun Kharge, Venugopal, Digvijaya to contest for post
New Delhi: Several media reports including India Today on Monday reported Rajasthan Chief Minister and aspirant of Congress’ chief post Ashok Gehlot was out of the race for the party’s presidential polls.
The development comes a day after the Congress MLAs in Rajasthan, supporting Gehlot threatened to resign amidst speculations of another party leader Sachin Pilot replacing Gehlot as the next CM of the state.
With this, media reports claimed senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijaya Singh and KC Venugopal will be contesting the polls that will elect the new party president.
"He (Ashok Gehlot) is out of the Congress presidential race. There will be other leaders who will file the nomination before September 30. Mukul Wasnik, Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijaya Singh, KC Venugopal in the race," a Congress leader was quoted as saying by India Today.
"The way Gehlot behaved hasn’t gone down well with the party leadership. They are very upset with him,” said another leader who is a CWC member.
Drama knew no bounds since Sunday evening after 82 Rajasthan MLAs, who are Gehlot's loyalists, tendered their resignation. They stated that the decision to induct the Rajashtan CM, in the case where Gehlot was elected as the party chief, should be carried out with the support of the party legislators. Referring to Sachin Pilot, they said that they did not perceive him as a leader who they could communicate with, the India Today report added.
Meanwhile, the BJP alleged bias in the approach of the Congress and referred to the history of the party. Ami Malviya raised the question of differential treatment for Gehlot. He said, "Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, both held the position of Prime Minister and Congress President at the same time. Ashok Gehlot just wants to be Chief Minister along with being the Congress President, if elected. Why should there be different standards for the Gandhis and the rest?"
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
