In the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on Friday, as part of which four seats are up for grabs in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has an onerous responsibility, that of ensuring the victory of the Congress' three candidates in the fray. And how successful he will be in fulfilling it will have repercussions for him and the state unit in the run up to the Assembly elections scheduled for late 2023.
In what has become a routine affair for him, Gehlot sequestered the MLAs supporting his government at the Taj Aravali in Udaipur, the resort where the party held its Chintan Shivir in May. The MLAs were scheduled to be back in Jaipur, again to be corralled at a hotel in the state capital and taken to the Vidhan Sabha from there for the Rajya Sabha polls.
He has been busy keeping the legislators in good humour, interacting with the MLAs who are disgruntled and assuaging their concerns. His personal outreach to the 13 independent legislators supporting his government and the six BSP MLAs who had earlier joined the Congress has been an important part of his survival plan. He has yet again made an effort to ensure that these legislators continue to be on board. It is learnt that part of the discussions is Gehlot has gone to the extent to assure these MLAs that they will win as Congress candidates in the next Assembly polls.
It is being said that after the Rajya Sabha elections are over, there might be a cabinet reshuffle aimed at accommodating the MLAs Gehlot reached out to to ensure that they voted for the Congress candidates.
Gehlot, one of the only two chief ministers that the Congress has, has been faced with strong claims from former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot for a generational change at the helm in the state. Especially after the Congress' poor showing in Punjab, there are demands from the Pilot camp that now is the time to effect a change of guard as bringing Charanjit Singh Channi in as chief minister just ahead of the elections in Punjab did not provide him with enough time to make an impact.
In the event of the Congress faltering in the Rajya Sabha polls, the demands for Gehlot to step aside are bound to grow stronger. However, if he manages to fend off the challenge from the BJP and ensure the victory of all three Congress nominees, his position is expected to be strengthened vis-a-vis Pilot.
The Congress has named Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari as its candidates from Rajasthan. The party has 108 MLAs in the Assembly and needs at least 123 votes to get all the three elected. Gehlot has asserted that the party has the support of 126 MLAs. “Despite knowing full well that they do not have the numbers, the BJP has through an independent candidate tried to muddy the waters. They are making efforts to indulge in horse trading. BJP's sponsor Subhash Chandra entered the fray as part of this strategy,” he said in Udaipur on Wednesday before leaving for Jaipur where he met a few legislators supporting his government who could not travel to the city of lakes for various reasons.
Media baron Chandra, who has entered the fray as an independent, had set the cat among the pigeons by declaring that six legislators supporting the Gehlot government would vote for him. The BJP has 30 surplus votes that will go into Chandra's kitty, and he needs 11 more to make the cut.
Gehlot clearly has his task cut out.
