Gehlot Pulls Out Of Congress Prez Poll Race, Apologises To Sonia Gandhi Over Rajasthan Fiasco

Referring to the party's political crisis in Rajasthan, Gehlot decided to withdraw himself from the contest - where he was earlier being viewed as a frontrunner. 

New Delhi: Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress veteran Ashok Gehlot on Thursday announced that he will not be contesting for the post of party president, reported news agency ANI. Referring to the party's political crisis in Rajasthan, Gehlot decided to cnacel his bid for the contest - where he was earlier being viewed as a frontrunner. 

"I met Rahul Gandhi in Kochi & requested him to fight in the polls (for Congress President). When he didn't accept, I said I'll contest but now with that incident (Rajasthan Political Crisis), I've decided not to contest the elections," Gehlot said, quoted by the news agency. 

Gehlot's announcement came after he met with Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi earlier today amid the political conundrum in his state since the Congress Legislature Party meet was scheduled to take place in Jaipur.  

On Sunday, the Congress had convened a meeting of party MLAs in Jaipur as part of the process to choose a successor to Gehlot but his loyalists held a "parallel meeting". 90 MLAs of Gehlot faction, dissatisfied over Sachin Pilot's appointment as Gehlot's successor went to Rajasthan Governor's residence to submit their resignation while Ajay Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge waited for those MLAs to start the meeting. 

Three Gehlot's loyalist were later issued a show cause notice while Kharge and Maken gave a written report about the incident to Sonia Gandhi which had given clean chit to Gehlot.  

As Gehlot steps down from the contest, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digivjaya Singh are in the fray for new Congress President election. Both the party veterans are slated to submit their nomination papers tomorrow, September 30. 

Before meeting the party interim chief today, he said that Congress workers worry about the direction in which the country is heading and tackling issues related to it was more important. 

"Be it inflation, unemployment or dictatorial tendency in the country, Rahul Gandhi worries about it. All of us in Congress worry about the direction in which the country is heading. Tackling that is more important for us. Internal politics goes on, we'll resolve it," he said.

"We work under the Congress president. Decisions will be taken as per that in the time to come. Media should recognise the issues of the country. Authors, journalists are being called anti-nationals and jailed. We worry for them and Rahul Gandhi is on Yatra for them," he added.