All eyes on 10, Janpath after high drama in Rajasthan Congress

Senior party leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath is likely to be entrusted with the task of diffusing crisis in Rajasthan Congress. Nath, who is the Madhya Pradesh Congress chief, is known to have close ties with Gehlot and could be asked to broker a truce

New Delhi: All eyes are on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi as top leaders converged at her 10, Janpath residence here on Monday after a series of developments in the last 24 hours in Rajasthan, where a majority of the party MLAs have rebelled against Sachin Pilot and want Ashok Gehlot to continue as the chief minister.

Party observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken, who were sent to Rajasthan, returned to Delhi on Monday after a planned meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) failed to take place. They met Gandhi at her residence soon after their return from Jaipur. The high drama has also put a question mark on whether Gehlot would still run for the party president's post or someone else would replace him as a candidate supported by the current leadership. Gehlot has maintained that the "one man, one post" formula does not apply to him as the Congress presidential poll is an internal affair.

Maken said they would submit their report to Gandhi after which the party's further strategy would be chalked out. He said he and Kharge kept waiting for the party MLAs in Jaipur on Sunday night, but they did not turn up.

Senior party leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath is likely to be entrusted with the task of diffusing crisis in Rajasthan Congress. Nath, who is the Madhya Pradesh Congress chief, is known to have close ties with Gehlot and could be asked to broker a truce. Former leader of opposition in Rajasthan Rameswar Dudy also met Gandhi amid the developments.

The political drama in Rajasthan over a possible leadership change continued on Monday with the MLAs loyal to Gehlot refraining from separately meeting Kharge and Maken. They held a parallel meeting in favour of Gehlot remaining as the chief minister and put forth a series of demands. Pilot, who is seen to be the main contender for the chief minister's post if Gehlot is elected as the Congress president, is also expected to meet the party high-command amid the developments. Congress sources said 82 MLAs loyal to Gehlot, who resigned on Sunday over a possible move to appoint Pilot as the next chief minister, are likely to hold a meeting on Monday to decide their next course of action. The Congress has 108 MLAs in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly. Kharge and Maken, who waited in vain for all the MLAs to arrive for the CLP meeting on Sunday, were trying to persuade the Gehlot loyalists to meet them one by one, in an effort to defuse the political crisis. However, several MLAs have left for their respective constituencies in view of the Navratri festival, the sources said. Maken slammed the Gehlot loyalists for setting conditions for a party resolution, terming it a "conflict of interest", and said their decision to hold a parallel meeting amounted to indiscipline.