Ashok Gehlot to fight Congress chief poll but Sonia Gandhi will 'decide' his future as CM

In a big development on Friday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot confirmed that he will contest the upcoming election for the Congress president's post. Speaking to the media at the Kochi airport after participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the senior Congress leader conceded that he had failed to convince Rahul Gandhi to enter the poll fray. Moreover, he stressed that the Wayanad MP wanted a non-Gandhi to be at the helm of affairs. Apart from the Rajasthan CM, speculation is rife that leaders like Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari and Digvijaya Singh could also file their nomination papers. 

Ashok Gehlot remarked, "I told you before that I wanted to request him once. When all Congress Pradesh Committees are passing proposals that you should become the president, then you should accept it. So, I tried to talk to him. But he said that he has taken a decision that no member of the Gandhi family will become a candidate this time. He said this clearly. He noted that he knows that many people want (me to become the president), and I respect them. But we have decided for some reasons that a member from a non-Gandhi family should become the president this time." 

He added, "In 2019, Rahul Gandhi said that I will do whatever work I am entrusted with by my party without holding a post. He stressed that he will work more. He said this in the Working Committee (meeting) too."

However, Gehlot made it clear that Sonia Gandhi shall decide whether he will step down as the Rajasthan CM after becoming the Congress president. He observed, "I can't say this in Kochi. Our general secretary in-charge Ajay Maken and Congress president Sonia Ji will take a decision that if I become the president, then what process should be followed and when". This statement is being perceived as a validation of the BJP's claim that the new Congress president will follow the diktats of the Gandhis. 

Congress president's election

While Sonia Gandhi was at the helm of affairs of Congress for 19 years which witnessed the United Progressive Alliance emerging victorious in 2004 as well as the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, her son Rahul Gandhi replaced her in December 2017. Following a series of defeats in state elections combined with the disastrous performance of Congress in the 2019 General elections, he announced his decision to step down. After attempts to persuade him to take back his resignation failed, Sonia Gandhi assumed interim charge of the party in August 2019.

Despite the letter penned by the G23 leaders and a series of election defeats in 2020 and 2021, the election for the Congress president's post was delayed. While announcing the election schedule on August 28, party general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal clarified that any party worker can file his nomination. But Congress state units in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand, Haryana and J&K have passed resolutions backing Wayanad MP for the party's top post, making it evident that only a Gandhi family loyalist will be favoured in the election.