‘Her behaviour towards Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken in the recent steering panel meet was marked by a lack of interest’.
NEW DELHI: In the recently held steering committee’s meeting by Congress party, Sonia Gandhi’s behaviour towards Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken was marked by lack of interest, a source present in the meeting observed. The source further added that Gandhi’s habit of being polite and gentle to everyone makes it easy to detect who she is less courteous towards. Party leaders claim it is much clear to reckon why she could have been indifferent toward Congress veteran leader Ashok Gehlot, who is also the CM of Rajasthan. His resistance towards the high command by not complying in giving up his position and make way for Pilot is the core reason that has distanced Gehlot from the Gandhis. However, the inconsiderate behavior towards Ajay Maken, a senior Congress leader who was once the CM face in Delhi legislative Assembly elections, is not very clear.
A political analyst said, “She must be angry as to why he gave resignation from his position of Rajasthan observer. There could be another reason for he could not ably handle the Rajasthan situation when Gehlot planned rebellion was successful in avoiding the official meet, the onus of that failure was on him which led to the delay of promised settlement in the state by not bringing Pilot as the CM.”
Maken, who was recently nominated for the Rajya Sabha seat by the grand old party from Haryana, could not manage to win the seat. Thereby, a section of Congress leaders in Delhi Pradesh Committee believe that he is dissatisfied in the party as he has consistently been failing in his ventures and in his responsibilities given by the party, which has somehow choked his influence in the party.
Moreover, there is another set of leaders saying that continuous undeclared rift between Gehlot and him might have demotivated Maken in his prospects within the party as Gehlot had tried to clog his moves several times. A senior leader in the DPCC said, “There are rumblings within the party that he may leave Congress as he has been unable to weild any power here. He was nominated for RS seat and he lost that too. Even in the DPCC, there has been no significant role that he has played. Many leaders in the Delhi unit have been complaining of him not cooperating with the state unit and also hampering its decision-making.” However, a source close to the national leadership said that the party is thinking of making Maken the DPCC chief as a reward for his patience. The replacement, according to party leaders, could come after the incompetent management of the state unit by its current chief, Anil Chaudhary. The party had won 30 wards in 2017 when the MCD was a three-corporation body with a vote share of around 21% and now, under the leadership of Chaudhary, it has dropped by 10% to 11.68% votes this time.