'Raj in charge Maken's retweet shows pain at being left red-faced'

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Jaipur, July 20 (IANS) Rajasthan Congress in-charge Ajay Maken's retweet supporting the elevation of Navjot Singh Sidhu as party's Punjab chief has become a hot topic of discussion in the desert state with Congress workers openly saying that the senior leader was left red-faced many times, due to the "high-handed" attitude of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

Every time Maken gave deadline for political appointments and cabinet expansion, the Gehlot government made sure that the deadline was not met, either in the name of the Budget session of the Assembly or Covid-19 protocol. He had to face a flurry of questions from his own partymen and the media on these two issues, but he had no answers.

Also his formula given to Gehlot to break the ice between the two camps -- Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, was rejected by the former, and hence, Maken left Jaipur recently without meeting Pilot during his two-day trip.

Maken had retweeted journalist Shakeel Akhtar's July 18 Hindi tweet reading: "No 'satrap' wins any kingdom on his own. The poor, weaker sections and the common man vote for the Gandhi-Nehru family. But whether it is Amarinder Singh or Gehlot or Sheila Dikshit or anyone else, as soon as they become the Chief Minister, they think the party won because of them."

Akhtar also said that the party leadership took the right decision to name Sidhu as Punjab unit chief and that such a show of strength was necessary.

Speaking to IANS, a senior Congress leader in Rajasthan noted: "Gehlot seems to have become the strongest among 4G, that is Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Gehlot himself. He has not been questioned by the high command for why he has been into quarantine for over a year."

"Also his quarantine for months as post-Covid precaution is being looked at by raised eyebrows by many party workers."

Another party worker said: "We need to know if any doctor in the world has advised anyone to quarantine for two months as post Covid precaution."

"Maken has not been oblivious to all this gossip and comments in the state and had left Jaipur red-faced everytime he was unable to meet his promises he made to the party workers. So this retweet basically reveals his pain and humiliation he suffered in the desert state," said another worker.

Gehlot was also absent from former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's seminar which was held recently in the Rajasthan Assembly.

All these chain of events seem to have prompted Maken's retweet.

Earlier, Avinash Pandey was also removed from the Congress state in charge after Priyanka Gandhi Vadra formed a three-member committee, comprising K.C. Venugopal, Ahmed Patel (now deceased) and Maken, to look into Pilot's grievances after he was brought back into the party's fold post his rebellion.

Pandey was allegedly ignoring suggestions given by Pilot.

--IANS

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