Ashok Gehlot may meet Sonia Gandhi to end the crisis

Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is likely to meet Sonia Gandhi and explain the ongoing crisis including the boycott of the Congress Legislature Party meeting by the MLAs loyal to him.

Rajasthan Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal, party chief whip Mahesh Joshi, and RTDC chairman Dharmendra Rathore were served a show-cause notice for holding a parallel meeting of MLAs. The notice issued to Dhariwal said he has committed a "grave indiscipline" by hosting the parallel meeting at his residence and "pressuring MLAs to attend the official meeting". It also stated that the legislatures were also confused about which one is the official meeting.

Chief Whip Joshi also received a similar notice. It pointed out that the parallel meeting happened when officially appointed observers were waiting. Senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Rajasthan in-charge Ajay Maken have repeatedly clarified that they were in the state to speak with each MLA "individually and impartially" to make a report to be submitted to Sonia Gandhi.

The state has been seeing a crisis as Gehlot entered the race to be Congress President which will leave the top post vacant. While Congress leadership wanted Sachin Pilot to take up the post, team Gehlot remained against it. In order to keep the status quo in Rajasthan, Gehlot dropped out of the Congress presidential race and chose to keep his post as Chief Minister.

Sources said that he will remain in Delhi for the next two days and discuss the crisis. A section of Congress leaders has been pushing for Gehlot's name for the post of president again. A decision is likely to be taken by this evening. And the crisis in Jaipur is likely to be settled in two days.

Sachin Pilot is also in Delhi and has been maintaining silence on the matter.