Sonia, Rahul shoot down candidature of 'rebel' minister Dhaliwal for Rajasthan polls

New Delhi, Oct 19: Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former party chief Rahul Gandhi have not forgotten the September 25 episode last year, when the party's observers had to return to the national capital without holding the meeting of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Rajasthan due to "rebellion" by a group of party lawmakers.

According to party sources, when the Congress' Central Election Committee (CEC) met under the chairmanship of party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday morning, with the Gandhis along with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and several other senior party leaders present.

As Dhariwal's name came up for the discussion, Sonia Gandhi then reacted sharply, asking how his name is there in the list, the source said.

As Gehlot sought to tell Sonia Gandhi that Dhariwal is a senior party leader with clean image, the source that the Chief Minister was cut short by Rahul Gandhi, who said that he has received several complaints against Dhaliwal during the Bharat Jodo Yatra's Rajasthan leg.

He then also asked Screening Committee Chairman Gaurav Gogoi if he didn't get any names besides Dhaliwal and his family members, the source claimed.

Gogoi only responded with "ok".

The source said that following the strong objection by the senior party leadership against Dhaliwal there was a complete silence in the room.

On September 25 last year, Dhaliwal had led the rebellion against the party high command.

Sonia Gandhi, who was then interim chief of the party had sent Kharge and Ajay Maken as observers in Rajasthan to hold a meeting of the Congress legislators in the state amid reports that Gehlot could be moved out of his post and made the party chief.

However, the observers returned to Delhi after the meeting of the party legislators could not take place. Ahead of the meeting, MLAs considered close to Gehlot met under the leadership of Dhariwal in what was seen as a message to the high command to pick a Gehlot loyalist as his successor.

The parallel meeting at Dhaliwal's residence caused huge embarrassment to Kharge and Maken and posed a challenge to the senior leadership.

The Congress issued show cause notice against three Congress leaders of the state, Dhaliwal, chief whip in the Assembly Mahesh Joshi and State Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Dharmendra Rathore, who were instrumental in playing a leading role in organising a parallel meeting of the MLAs.

The names of Rathore and Joshi were dropped by the Screening Committee. However, the name of Dhaliwal made way to the CEC on Wednesday, when it faced a strong reactions from the Gandhis, the source said.

The source further said that the names of at least 50 to 55 sitting MLAs have been finalised and about 49 to 45 new candidates figure in the lost which can be released anytime soon.

Polling for 200 member Rajasthan Assembly is scheduled on November 25 and counting of votes will take place on December 3. The Congress is eyeing a second consecutive term in Rajasthan and has launched several pro-people schemes in the desert state.