Rajasthan Congress Crisis News: MLAs won't tolerate traitors being rewarded, Gehlot camp tells Congress high command

Congress in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken on Monday slammed the MLAs loyal to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot 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. The MLAs loyal to Gehlot had on Sunday night submitted their resignation letters over a possible move to appoint Sachin Pilot as the chief minister and also kept away from the legislature party meeting called by central party observers -- Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge.

Politics in Rajasthan took a new twist on Sunday with around 70 MLAs, who are staunch supporters of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, gathering at the residence of state minister Shanti Dhariwal, to chalk out a strategy to eliminate Sachin Pilot from the race to select his successor. As per state minister Pratap Khachriyawas, 92 MLAs are together and have decided to resign. "We have all the right to choose our leader and we will decide our leader," he said. These MLAs reached the residence of Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi to submit their resignation. Khachriyawas said that their only demand is that the new Chief Minister should be from those 101 MLAs who helped in saving the government during the rebellion and not from those who were a part of the rebels."If 10-15 MLAs will be lent an ears why not the majority of the MLAs," he asked.

The two Congress party observers for Rajasthan- Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken- will arrive in Delhi on Monday to submit their report to the top leadership on the political crisis, which has engulfed the state following mass resignations by party MLAs. With miffed party MLAs unwilling to meet with the observers, sources said that the next step will be decided by observers of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) after a discussion with the party's high command.

As the majority of Congress MLAs from the Ashok Gehlot camp are submitting their resignations, party interim president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday directed observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken to conduct one-on-one talks with Rajasthan MLAs to resolve the issue. Both the observers are likely to meet around 90 MLAs who have tendered their resignation to Assembly Speaker. We are not going to Delhi at the moment, we have been instructed by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi to conduct one-to-one talks with Rajasthan Congress MLAs. We will meet them tonight," Maken said.

Amid the political crisis in Rajasthan Congress, State Minister Mahesh Joshi in the wee hours of Monday said that they want the party to take care of people who have been loyal to Congress. He further said that every MLA believes in interim president Sonia Gandhi that their demands will be considered. "Every MLA has faith in interim president Sonia Gandhi. We have kept our point and expect that our demands will be considered when the final decision is taken by the high command. We want the party to take care of people who've been loyal to Congress," said Joshi.