Rajasthan Congress passes resolution seeking Rahul Gandhi at party helm

JAIPUR/NEW DELHI: With a week to go for the start of the nomination process for the Congress president’s election, the party’s Rajasthan unit passed a resolution that Rahul Gandhi should become the AICC president.
The resolution was passed in a meeting attended by the PCC delegates who vote in the President’s election, including chief minister Ashok Gehlot (who proposed the resolution), AICC state in-charge Ajay Maken, senior leaders and Sachin Pilot. Interestingly, sources said, the “sense of the House” was expressed after the AICC returning officer Rajendra Kumpawat left the hall following the official meeting. Such meetings are being held across states with the limited agenda of authorising the “incoming president” to appoint state presidents, and AICC delegates who vote in the CWC elections.
The development stood out for a couple of reasons. Gehlot is the frontrunner for the post of the president given the reported reluctance of Rahul Gandhi to take the top job that he quit in the wake of the 2019 election debacle. Rahul, however, has not in public refused the chief’s post. In a rare comment on the issue last week at the Nagercoil pitstop of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, he told reporters that if he does not file the nomination, then he should be asked why he was against taking the leadership and he would answer.
While the Rajasthan resolution again brought in the open the possibility of Rahul becoming the party chief, many felt it was Gehlot’s way of not coming across as keen for the president’s post, or of demonstrating what he has been demanding in public all along -- that Rahul should become the party president.
“Let us wait for the final decision to interpret this development,” a party office-bearer said, pointing out that Madhya Pradesh unit on Saturday did not pass any such resolution in its meeting.