By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, May 18 (IANS): The resignation of Rajasthan MLA Hemaram Choudhary, who is known to be from former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot's camp, on Tuesday has come a new headache for the Ashok Gehlot government with all eyes on Speaker C.P. Joshi to see if he shall accept it or not.

In his letter, Choudhary, who represents Gudamalani, requested the Speaker to accept his resignation on Tuesday itself.

Meanwhile, staunch Pilot loyalist and MLA Vishvendra Singh's son Anirudhh Singh, in a tweet, termed the development as a "start" in state politics.

Vishvendra Singh had stood strongly with Pilot during the rebellion last year and hence had to lose his cabinet portfolio, along with Ramesh Meena, who too was a Pilot supporter. Pilot himself lost the posts of Deputy Chief Minister and the state Congress chief.

After the rebellion was defused with Pilot and his followers being brought back into the party fold in July last year, they were awaiting the cabinet positions and political appointments which they were reportedly promised.

Amid this, Choudhary's resignation created ripples in the state's political circles as he has been a senior leader, who served as MLA for six times, has been Revenue minister in Congress' last tenure, and has also served as Leader of Opposition earlier.

His resignation has been seen as continuing discord in the Congress and many senior Congress workers are left shocked and are keen to know how the party deals with the matter.

However, state Congresss chief Govind Singh Dotasara tried to address the doubts, saying: "Hemaram is a senior and respectable leader in our party. Soon after his resignation, I have had a word with him. This is an internal family matter and we will resolve it soon."

Choudary has expressed his anguish against the government many times. He has been vocal against its functioning in the Assembly recently and has demanded a CBI inquiry into the poor development work of roads.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria termed Choudhary as a legendary leader who set up a role model for resigning for the cause of his people.

BJP state chief Satish Poonia asked Gehlot as to who will he accuse for the MLA's resignation now. "He is neither able to manage corona nor the Congress party," he quipped, claiming that Choudhary's resignation shows internal discord in the party due to which people of the state are suffering.