Aicc: Sachin Pilot, 4 loyalists in 75-strong Rajasthan AICC list; CM son also among members | Jaipur News

JAIPUR: Rajasthan cabinet minister Mahesh Joshi was among three Congress legislators missing from a 75-strong list of newly appointed AICC members from the state, days after being removed as the party’s chief whip in what appeared to be a crackdown on those who had “sabotaged” the CLP meeting last September that was to decide chief minister Ashok Gehlot‘s successor.

While Gehlot remains the chief minister after dropping out of the Congress presidential race, the axe has fallen on Joshi, parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal and RTDC chairman Dharmendra Rathore, all three of whom had been served disciplinary notices over the CLP fiasco.

Gehlot’s former deputy-turned-arch rival Sachin Pilot had been pressing for action against those who ensured the CLP meeting couldn’t be held, ostensibly to prevent him from becoming CM. The AICC’s decision came ahead of the party’s plenary session in Raipur from February 24- 26. Gehlot and Pilot are among the 55 elected representatives in the AICC list, besides 20 co-opted ones. Elected members have voting rights.
Four Pilot loyalists made it to the list – Murari Lal Meena, Indraj Gurjar, Kuldeep Indora and Divya Maderna. Some like Pramod Jain Bhaya, Prashant Bairwa, Preeti Gajendra Singh and Sudarshan Singh Rawat are considered close to both him and the chief minister.

Gehlot’s son and Rajasthan Cricket Association president Vaibhav Gehlot is also a part of the AICC list as an elected member. Apart from the CM, 17 ministers have been made AICC members. Pominent Gehlot loyalists include ministers Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, Ashok Chandna and Shale Mohammad, former ministers Jitendra Singh and Rajkumar Sharma, Krishna Poonia and Pukhraj Parashar.
From the Pilot camp, Hemaram Chaudhary, Brijendra Ola and Rajendra Gudha were left out.