Even as aspirant Sachin Pilot patiently waits for the Congress High Command to fulfil the pending promises and execute a ‘game plan’ for Rajasthan, newly-appointed All India Congress Committee (AICC) President Mallikarjun Kharge is said to be counting on Pilot’s ‘organisation first’ motto to end the impasse.
In Kharge’s scheme of things, Pilot will find a place in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and a role in national politics. However, the former state party chief, who has been professing unflinching loyalty, is tad reluctant to accept Kharge’s offer. His reasoning is compelling. Pilot’s work in Rajasthan soon after the 2014 Lok Sabha debacle would come to a naught if he moves out of the state politics when Assembly polls are eight months away.
In the Congress’s internal assessment, the party is set to perform miserably if Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Pilot do not bury the hatchet at the earliest. For the record, while speaking during the Holi Milan celebrations recently, Pilot said, “I think if the government and the organisation work together, the Congress government in Rajasthan will repeat.”
Informed sources said Kharge, who is set to revamp the AICC secretariat and reconstitute a 35-member CWC after the ticket distribution for Karnataka Assembly polls, wants to end the Rajasthan entangle soon. In the Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Gehlot and Pilot have been at loggerheads since the Congress won the December 2018 Assembly polls.
In July 2020, Pilot tried to force a leadership change but the crisis was averted by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Ahmed Patel. A tentative truce had entailed seeking Congress MLAs head count which, in turn, kept getting delayed. Finally, when the two AICC observers (one of them was Kharge) reached Jaipur on September 25, 2022, a CLP meeting could not be held due to a late-night drama, intrigue, and machinations supposedly masterminded by Gehlot. Notwithstanding the displeasure expressed by the high command, Gehlot managed to remain Chief Minister.
Sources close to Kharge now accept the difficulties in forcing a change of guards when assembly polls are due in November-December. Team Kharge is reportedly working on various plans to resolve it. Plan A is to persuade Pilot to accept Gehlot’s continuation till the remaining period of the term, and offer Pilot organisational responsibilities at the national level. Pilot, who is a Major in the Territorial Army and who belongs to the Gujar caste, has pockets of influence in several northern and central Indian states. In addition, his oratory skills had seen him as an effective campaigner in the Assembly polls in Kerala, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
If Pilot declines to become an AICC functionary, Plan B would come into the play. It requires more deft handling by Kharge and the Gandhis. In this scheme of things, Gehlot may be forced to accept Pilot as state party chief, a post Pilot had held from 2014 to 2020. The move would be a bitter medicine for Gehlot as Pilot’s return as RPCC would signal the young leader’s projection as a future Chief Minister in the ensuing polls. As per the tradition, the state party unit chief often heads the Congress campaign committee and has a decisive say in the ticket distribution too.
Septuagenarian Gehlot fancies himself as a claimant for the chief ministerial post if the Congress wins the December polls. However, on December 14, 2018 when the Congress won the Rajasthan mandate, Gehlot was not projected as a chief ministerial face. Rahul Gandhi as AICC President, reportedly viewed Gehlot as a stopgap Chief Minister. Rahul Gandhi had in fact contemplated shifting Gehlot to national politics after the May 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Congress disastrous performance that summer upset the plans, and Rahul Gandhi resigned from his post in a huff. It must be remembered that his subsequent call for the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states to step down taking responsibility for the debacle was met with stoic silence, and indifference.
Kharge is reportedly giving final touches to the new AICC secretariat, currently notorious for its masterly inactivity, diffidence, and lack of acumen. It is perhaps a reflection of their political stature that when some of the current AICC functionaries visit the states, few even are asked to sit down. An AICC general secretary is particularly disliked for ignoring calls from various regional satraps but is quick to send WhatsApp instructions to mobilise resources, etc.
Recently, someone at 24, Akbar Road was heard recalling a Chinese adage: when small men cast big shadows, it means Sun is about to be set. It was not clear whether Kharge, who visits the party headquarters every Monday, heard this comment or not.
(Rasheed Kidwai is a political commentator, author, and visiting Fellow at Observer Research Foundation. Twitter: @rasheedkidwai)
Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.