• 3 Gehlot loyalists blamed for Rajasthan crisis: Sonia told, reports ndtv.com

The imbroglio over Rajasthan government seems to be getting more and more complicated.

According to ndtv.com, some Central Congress leaders who met party interim president Sonia Gandhi spoke to Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot who is slated to meet Sonia soon.

As per sources, Gehlot is still not out of the race for the Congress chief election despite the fact that the Gandhis are upset with him for clandestinely engineering a rebellion in the state.

Meanwhile, amid suspense over whether Gehlot would run for Congress presidency, the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry Tuesday said AICC treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal has got nomination forms collected but they might be for someone else.

Mistry also said he had no information on whether Gehlot was going to file his nomination papers and no one had communicated with him over this. The remark comes amid speculation that the Rajasthan chief minister may be dropped as a candidate for the Congress president post.

Speaking with reporters in his office at the AICC headquarters here, Mistry said he met with party chief Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence on Tuesday and handed over her QR-coded identity card for the party president's election.

He also briefed Sonia about how many people have collected the nomination forms and about the delegates.

Mistry said Bansal got the nomination forms collected from his office on Monday and it may be "as a supporter" of someone.

When pressed further as to whether Bansal may have collected the forms for himself or someone else, Mistry said he cannot say for whom he has collected as it is not the procedure to ask for whom forms are being collected as any delegate can collect the forms.

Congress in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken on Monday slammed the MLAs loyal to 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.

"In the 75 years of Congress history, there has never been a conditional resolution. Resolution is one-line only. Everything is told to the Congress president and then a decision is taken," Maken told reporters here before leaving for New Delhi.

"Resolution should not have any conflict of interest. Those who are contesting elections and tomorrow become party president, they get to decide on the resolution and this is a conflict of interest. So, it is wrong," he said without naming Gehlot.

On Sunday night, ministers Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi and Pratap Singh Khachariyawas had met Maken and Kharge at the chief minister's residence to convey the message of the MLAs loyal to Gehlot who are dead against Rajesh Pilot taking over from Gehlot if the latter contests the Congress presidential polls.

He said the delegation put forward three conditions: A decision on the selection of chief minister should be taken after the Congress presidential election, the chief minister should be from among those MLAs who stood with the government during the political crisis in 2020 and not from the Pilot camp, and the AICC observers should hold meetings in groups instead of one-to-one as sought by the high command.

"So, no one should be worried that their feelings and thoughts are not being conveyed. But, they (delegation of ministers) insisted that their three demands should be part of the resolution," he said.

Maken said he and Kharge kept waiting for the MLAs on Sunday night but they did not turn up. "So today, we are returning to New Delhi to apprise Sonia Gandhi about the developments," he added.

"We will listen to everyone. No decision is being taken. Whatever you will say will be conveyed to Delhi... We have directions to hold one-to-one meetings with MLAs so that they speak frankly," Maken said.