By Aurangzeb Naqshbandi

Veteran Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh has indicated that he will contest the upcoming elections to the party president’s post.

That means, there are three possible candidates as of now with Shashi Tharoor and Ashok Gehlot being the other two.

Gehlot met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday and has reached Kochi to make one last ditch effort to persuade Rahul Gandhi to return as the party chief.

However, Rahul Gandhi so far continues to remain adamant on his stand that a non-Gandhi will be the next Congress president. It appears unlikely that he will change his mind despite pressure in the form of resolutions coming from all the state units.

Gehlot had called a late-night emergency meeting of Congress legislators on Tuesday night. The Rajasthan chief minister informed them that he will file the nomination papers on September 26 if Rahul Gandhi does not agree to become the Congress president.

Till now, Gehlot has put certain conditions for Sonia Gandhi’s offer to take up the top job in the party – he wants to continue as the chief minister and if the Congress high command is unwilling to concede then his nominee and not Sachin Pilot should be handed over the reins of the government in the desert state.

His first condition will not be acceptable to the leadership. Already, Digvijaya Singh has asserted that Gehlot will have to quit as the Rajasthan chief minister as per the one-man, one-post norm adopted by the grand old party in its declaration during the three-day ‘chintan shivir (brainstorming session)’ at Udaipur in May this year.

Digvijaya Singh’s call for Gehlot’s resignation if he becomes the Congress president will obviously be music to Pilot’s ears. He has been eagerly waiting for this day and if the Congress leadership does not do a Punjab in Rajasthan, his appointment is a foregone conclusion.

Read more: https://www.newsdrum.in/analysis/congress-president-is-digvijaya-trying-to-queer-the-pitch-for-gehlot-92832.html