By Archana Sharma
Jaipur, Nov 21 (IANS): The Congress High Command has made all ministers of the Ashok Gehlot government of Rajasthan resign.
Many questions are being raised on why these mass resignations; Was there a lot of pressure from former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot or has the High Command taken over due to the poor performance of the ministers?
Sources have said that the Congress High Command made it clear that it wanted to give equal weightage to two groups including Gehlot and Pilot, so that the new cabinet will have a balanced number of MLAs.
It also wanted to prove that the High Command has all the rights to take jurisdiction of any decision.
After the Pilot-Gehlot dispute, the stature of the Chief Minister was continuously increasing and he was seen taking decisions in his individual capacity.
The sources said that this message went to the High Command and it gave a clear sign that the Congress is a national party and hence it will take all the decisions, following which the mass resignations happened.
The Congress High Command further wanted to make it clear that no one should be under the illusion that he or she can have a higher stature in the party.
In such a situation, the jurisdiction of any decision lies with the Congress High Command only.
It also wanted to send a message that there is no place for Ministers who cannot perform.
All ministers facing charges of dereliction or corruption should be removed and only those with a clean image should be inducted in the cabinet.
With these aims in mind, the High Command played the pivotal role and made all ministers resign.
Earlier, the ministers inducted from the Pilot camp had joined Gehlot after a rebellion in July last year which left the former group disappointed and it wanted those ministers to be removed.
Ministers like Pratap Singh Khachariawas, Pramod Jain Bhaya, Uday Singh Anjana from the Pilot camp had joined camp and hence the former Deputy Chief Minister's faction was demanding their removal.
This controversy came to an end after the mass resignation as now the two sides will be able to choose ministers from their own quota.