Failing to settle the leadership question in Punjab well in time for the Assembly elections is being seen as the primary reason for the Congress’s defeat. Tensions between the Chief Ministers and the lead contenders for the CM’s chair are threatening to spill over in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two States where the party continues to be in power.
Both the States go to the elections in November–December 2023. After the declaration of results of the five State Assembly elections on March 10, former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan and Health Minister T.S. Singh Deo in Chhattisgarh haven’t made any fresh claim to the top post. But this uneasy truce hardly hides the discord that is renting apart the party.
In Rajasthan, the central leadership claims to have brokered peace between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Mr. Pilot, accommodating Mr. Pilot’s supporters in the Cabinet in the November 2021 reshuffle. While his loyalists got the portfolios of their choice and other important positions in the government, he was not given any responsibility.
