Rahul picks Gehlot to steer Rajasthan, Sachin is co-pilot

NEW DELHI: Veteran Congressman Ashok Gehlot on Friday prevailed over the last-minute resistance mounted by his junior colleague, Sachin Pilot, to be appointed Rajasthan chief minister for a third term, three days after the party wrested the state from BJP.

Following two days of intense brinkmanship, Congress president Rahul Gandhi capped the process of consultations with a final chat with Gehlot and state Congress president Pilot, who relented and accepted the post of deputy chief minister in the proposed Gehlot government.

But Jyotiraditya Scindia, who lost out the chief minister's post to veteran Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh, is learned to have refused the job of deputy CM offered to him.

While Gehlot, 68, popular with the masses across caste lines, was the face of the Congress campaign as the implacable rival of BJP mascot Vasundhara Raje, Pilot, 41, steered the state unit for five years and felt it was his efforts which resurrected Congress after its decimation in 2013.

In the wake of clash over chief ministership, Rahul held multiple meetings with the Rajasthan duo over last two days with even Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra getting involved. Sloganeering in Delhi and protests in Rajasthan by Pilot supporters added bitterness to the stalemate and put pressure on all camps to settle the issue early.

Interestingly, Congress president Rahul Gandhi appeared conscious of the fact that the face-off between the leaders and the accompanying media coverage had conveyed a sign of division at the top of the state leadership.

As the final discussion in the afternoon wound up, Rahul tweeted a picture of him flanked by a smiling Gehlot and Pilot with the tag-line: "The United Colours of Rajasthan".




After the final discussions involving Rahul, AICC general secretary in-charge Avinash Pande, observer KC Venugopal and former Union minister Jitendra Singh, the announcement lifting the suspense was made at a press conference where Gehlot thanked the party for appointing him to lead the government.

However, the conversation pointed to Pilot's conviction that he earned a degree of parity with the senior leader over two days of virtual haggling.

Referring to Gehlot's pre-poll quip -- "kaun banega crorepati" - in response to a question last month who would become the Congress CM in Rajasthan, Pilot told mediapersons, "Who would have thought that there would be not one but two crorepatis."

As if stressing the point, Pilot cited the victory in Rajasthan to remark, "Mera aur Ashok Gehlot ka jaadu puri tarah chal gaya hai (Mine and Gehlot's magic has worked in the state)."

The twin remarks pointed to Pilot's bid to put himself on the same pedestal as Gehlot, indicating that the future could hold a serious competition among the colleagues dubbed as "Old Guard and GenNext".

Sources said with Pilot, who hails from Gujjar community, becoming the Dy CM, the government was likely to include a good number of Jat MLAs as ministers.