Ashok Gehlot meets Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, says sorry, pulls out of Congress Prez race

A day after Congress high command in Delhi issued a show-cause notice to three Ashok Gehlot loyalists for grave indiscipline, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot met Sonia Gandhi in the capital to settle the dispute.

• Gehlot met Interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi at 10, Janpath, to place his side of the story in the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan.
• Gehlot said he apologised to Sonia Gandhi for the fiasco in Rajasthan.
• Gehlot also said that he would not be fighting the elections for the post of Congress President.
• Rajasthan Deputy CM Sachin Pilot arrived in Delhi on September 27. 

The Congress President post in the background: A few days ago, Ashok Gehlot looked like a promising candidate to be the next Congress President. But after the crisis in Rajasthan, Gehlot has pulled out of the Congress President race.

What happened: It all began on Sunday, September 25, when nearly 82 Ashok Gehlot loyalist MLAs submitted their resignation to speaker CP Joshi, ensuing in a late night drama. 

The case of Ashok Gehlot: Gehlot, on September 29 afternoon, announced that he was withdrawing from the race of the Congress President. 

• The Rajasthan political crisis amid Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra caused massive embarrassment to the party, and Congress is now keen on getting it done with as soon as possible.

Gehlot vs Pilot: The differences between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot were out for everyone to see in 2018 itself, and it has only worsened in the recent past.

• The differences came to the surface again in 2020 when Pilot, with 20 MLAs, camped in Delhi and then in Manesar in a bid to topple the Gehlot government.
• A truce was brokered then by Priyanka Gandhi, who had also promised Sachin Pilot the future Rajasthan CM post. 

The bigger picture: The current instability in the Rajasthan government can affect its fortunes in the next assembly elections, which are due in 2023. Rajasthan, which has seen the government change every five years, can also see the Congress losing the state to BJP. 

• Something similar occurred in Punjab as well, when Congress removed Captain Amarinder Singh as CM and made a Dalit leader, Charanjit Singh Channi, the CM. The party faired poorly in the 2022 State Assembly elections, getting only 18 out of 117 seats. AAP swept the elections with 92 seats.
• All now depends on the next Congress President, who will lead the party for the next few years.