Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has deferred the decisions on chief minister of Rajasthan for Friday as he wants to hold further discussions with party leaders, PTI reported quoting Congress sources, even as one of the top contenders for the desert state, Sachin Pilot, met the party chief for a second time late Thursday night.
The Congress chief had earlier held a series of meetings with CM aspirants in Rajasthan -- Ashok Gehlot and Pilot -- but no consensus emerged between the two and Pilot asserted his right for the top post.
Pilot's supporters also shouted slogans in his favour outside Gandhi's residence in New Delhi.
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While Gehlot is learnt to be leading the race for chief minister's post, Pilot is also putting up stiff resistance and is staking his claim.
Pilot visited Gandhi's residence again late in night amid speculation on whether the race was still open and could go down to the wire. The party president also met the central observer for the state K C Venugopal and the AICC state in-charge Avinash Pande for the second time.
Meanwhile, Sachin Pilot's supporters burnt tyres and blocked roads in Rajasthan on Thursday, demanding his appointment as the next chief minister.
As the Congress leadership in Delhi deliberated over the chief minister’s post, groups of people tried to stop traffic at places in Dausa, Ajmer and Karauli districts, police said.
Protesters blocked the Jaipur-Agra highway at Dausa for some time, burning old tyres. There was a similar disruption on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway, and attempts to block traffic on other roads.
In most cases, the protesters were from Pilot’s Gujjar community, police said.
Security was tightened in Jaipur ahead of the announcement of the name of the next chief minister as the supporters of both Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot had started gathering near their residences since morning.
With 99 seats, in Rajasthan, the Congress emerged as the single-largest party, though they fell one seat short of majority.
Rashtriya Lok Dal, Congress’ pre-poll alliance partner won one seat and together, both managed to get 100 seats, which made for the majority mark.
Watch: Decision on Rajasthan CM deferred till tomorrow
( With inputs from PTI )
