His remarks have revived scrutiny of the Congress presidential election that brought Mallikarjun Kharge to the helm and exposed deep factional tensions in Rajasthan, where Gehlot loyalists resisted a leadership change seen as favouring Sachin Pilot. The comments also come at a time when the Congress is trying to project cohesion after successive electoral setbacks in several states and continuing negotiations with Opposition allies.
Gehlot rejected the long-running perception that he had chosen the chief minister’s chair over the Congress presidency. He said the office had been held by figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Motilal Nehru and Sardar Patel, and questioned why he would have turned down the post if Sonia Gandhi and the Congress had wanted him to accept it. He also alleged that the circumstances around the 2022 episode created a “big conspiracy” that damaged his image.
The former chief minister said a false impression had taken root that he had engineered the revolt by legislators to prevent Pilot from succeeding him in Rajasthan. He maintained that he had no role in the developments that followed the arrival of All India Congress Committee observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken in Jaipur during the leadership transition talks.
The 2022 crisis unfolded when Gehlot was widely seen as the leading contender to succeed Sonia Gandhi as Congress president. At the time, Rahul Gandhi had indicated that no member of the Gandhi family would contest the internal election, creating space for a non-Gandhi leader to take over the organisation. Gehlot’s possible move to Delhi immediately raised the question of who would lead the Rajasthan government.
Pilot, who had served as deputy chief minister before his 2020 rebellion against Gehlot’s leadership, was viewed as a central figure in that succession debate. The possibility of Pilot being elevated triggered resistance from Gehlot’s supporters, many of whom argued that legislators who had stood with the government during the 2020 crisis should have a decisive say in the choice of the next chief minister.
More than 90 Congress legislators aligned with Gehlot were reported to have submitted resignations to the Assembly Speaker in September 2022, deepening the confrontation with the party high command. A Congress Legislature Party meeting failed to pass the expected resolution authorising the central leadership to choose the next chief minister. The observers later reported that several legislators did not participate in one-to-one consultations.
Maken had at the time objected to conditions placed by representatives of the Gehlot camp, including a demand that any decision on the chief minister’s post be deferred until after the Congress presidential election. That proposal raised concerns because Gehlot, if elected party president, would then have had influence over the selection of his own successor in Rajasthan.
Gehlot has now said he had expressed regret to Sonia Gandhi after the turmoil, stating that the party had given him everything in public life and that he felt responsible for the embarrassment caused by the episode. His renewed clarification suggests that the dispute continues to weigh on his political legacy nearly four years after the aborted leadership transition.
The crisis altered the course of the Congress presidential race. Gehlot withdrew from contention, Digvijaya Singh briefly emerged as a possible candidate, and Kharge entered the contest as the establishment-backed nominee. Kharge defeated Shashi Tharoor after voting on 17 October 2022 and counting on 19 October, securing 7,897 votes against Tharoor’s 1,072.
Kharge’s victory marked the first time in more than two decades that a non-Gandhi leader became Congress president. The change, however, did not fully resolve questions about the party’s internal decision-making, its dependence on the Gandhi family’s authority, or factional rivalries in key state units.
Rajasthan remained politically unsettled after the 2022 events. The Congress went into the 2023 Assembly election with Gehlot still leading the government, but lost power to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP won 115 seats in the 200-member Assembly, while the Congress was reduced to 69. Bhajan Lal Sharma later took office as chief minister.
