Gehlot pushes for truce

Venkatesh Kesari | NT

In a sign that yet another member of the old guard is being forced to make room for the second generation leaders backed by the brother-sister duo of Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot reportedly made a last ditch effort to push for some kind of compromise when he met with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The meet comes barely 24 hours after he conferred with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and the AICC general secretaries - K C Venugopal and Ajay Maken against the backdrop of rising speculation that the Gandhi siblings are no longer willing to give him a free run in the state and want the induction of Sachin Pilot’s men into the cabinet.

Maken, who is also the AICC incharge for Rajasthan told reporters: “We discussed the political situation in Rajasthan, a roadmap to ensure that the Congress returns to power in the next assembly elections and the Congress’ good performance in the recently concluded assembly by-elections in the state.”

“There were a number of issues that were required to be discussed with the chief minister and the roadmap is now clear”,

Maken added. Maken may have been referring to the formula offered to CM aspirant Sachin Pilot after Gehlot dragged his feet on the promised reshuffle of his cabinet. An exercise that would have seen his critics being brought into the cabinet which would check his absolute control over the state. Gehlot had successfully crushed the rebellion by Sachin Pilot and his supporters several months ago and managed to save his government. That time around, Sachin and his supporters in the government and the state assembly, were in close touch with the BJP which had been working behind the scenes to form a government in Rajasthan using the Madhya Pradesh model where the BJP had stoked a rebellion by long time Congress leader, Jyotiraditya Scindia, engineering a defection that brought the Congress’ Kamal Nath government down.

With Sachin Pilot’s camp becoming increasingly more influential at the AICC through the rising influencer Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, Pilot’s first step would be to induct his loyalists in the cabinet and push for an organisational reshuffle that would effectively reduce Gehlot’s control. Sachin Pilot was the deputy chief minister and the Rajasthan Congress president at the time of his rebellion.

Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi who are building their own team rather than depending on Sonia Gandhi’s trusted men, are relying more and more on younger people than the old faithfuls of the Nehru Gandhi family. The Cabinet reshuffle, and Pilot’s push for his own men as political appointees to various boards and corporations and the restructuring of the state Congress unit has been hanging fire for too long, Pilot’s supporters said.

The Pilot camp has alleged that Gehlot is delaying the Cabinet reshuffle in a bid to stave off Pilot’s rising clout. Interestingly, Pilot met Venugopal, Thursday morning and left for Rajasthan later in the day.

Punjab passes resolution against BSF order, farm laws

The Punjab Vidhan Sabha Thursday passed a unanimous resolution condemning the Centre for notifying an increase in the area of BSF jurisdiction, terming it an “insult” to the people of the border state and praising the Punjab Police for making more recoveries than the BSF. Only two BJP MLAs stayed away from proceedings of the House.

The Punjab assembly passed a resolution against the Centre’s three farm laws during the special session of the state assembly in Chandigarh on Thursday.

Punjab agriculture minister Randeep Singh Nabha moved the resolution that was followed by a debate marred by four adjournments, totalling an hour after Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi passed remarks against Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia. (PTI)