The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) will meet here on Wednesday to get the views of the newly elected MLAs on the selection of the Chief Minister and other issues. Their opinions will be conveyed to party president Rahul Gandhi.
Avinash Pande, Congress general secretary in charge of the State, said here on Tuesday that this was the usual practice. “Mr. Gandhi will take the final decision. The CLP will meet again in the evening to further take up the issue,” he said.
With former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot affirming that the Chief Minister’s post was not important for them, Mr. Pande said the decision would be taken “as early as possible”.
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Congress general secretary and party observer K.C. Venugopal is monitoring the situation.
Mr. Gehlot said the result in Rajasthan and other States showed that Mr. Gandhi’s graph was rising and that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “coming down”.
Mr. Gehlot said the people were suffering under the BJP’s rule and the nation was paying a heavy price for the NDA government’s “flawed decisions and policies”, including demonetisation.
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“The BJP's arrogant approach of building a Congress-free India will never succeed. The Congress will bounce back with more strength,” he said.
As the trends of the Congress leading in the State became clear, Mr. Pilot told reporters that the BJP’s defeat was imminent ever since it lost the by-elections to local bodies as well as the two Lok Sabha and one Assembly seat earlier this year.
Mr. Pilot termed the victory “a gift to Mr. Gandhi on the first anniversary of his appointment as Congress president”.
Mr. Pilot, who was given the task of rebuilding the Congress in the State after its defeat in the 2013 Assembly election, said the party would welcome the support of all “like-minded and anti-BJP” parties.