Two chief ministers, two different tales

The Congress crisis in Rajasthan has prompted political circles to compare it with the manner the high command intervened in Punjab to eject chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and appoint Charanjit Singh Channi, a virtual non-entity, as his successor. However, political circles are also not surprised by the manner in which Ashok Gehlot and supporting MLAs have resisted the Gandhi-led high command's bid to replicate the Chandigarh game in Jaipur.

Outward semblances apart, political realities in the Punjab Congress last year and internal equations of Rajasthan Congress have been entirely different. More importantly, the political approach, style and skills of Gehlot and Amarinder Singh have been different too. But one common factor has been the extra interest Sonia Gandhi and her two children are perceived to have shown in trying to foist their handpicked nominees over reigning CMs cruising towards assembly polls.

When the Congress high command foisted Navjot Sidhu as PCC chief, and subsequently Channi as CM, much against the wishes of the CM and traditional Congress MLAs, Amarinder Singh could not find any support among his 80 MLAs because he had a reputation as a 'CM cut off from his MLAs.' His refusal to be accessible to Congress MLAs, his penchant to run the administration through hand-picked bureaucrats and lack of interest in entertaining any Congress central leaders with the exception of Sonia Gandhi meant that Singh found himself in isolation when the high command acted against him. Almost all party MLAs deserted him.


Gehlot in contrast is known as an experienced, skillful and hands-on leader, who constantly bonds with his supporting MLAs and the party organisation. For about four decades, he has been at the centre stage of Rajasthan Congress as multi-time PCC chief, three-term CM, AICC general secretary (organisation), Union minister and multi-term MP.

Two years ago, it was the turn of the Congress high command to bask in the glory of 'Gehlot play' when he repulsed a 31-day toppling bid led by Sachin Pilot. Ironically, the same high command and the Gandhi siblings now feel the heat of another 'Gehlot play' when they tried to reduce him to an Amarinder Singh. While it is too early to predict the ending of the Rajasthan Congress crisis, the Jaipur and Chandigarh operations have shown how differently 'loyalist party straps' have responded to the diktats of the Gandhi-Vadra-led leadership.