Cong leaders will find way to resolve Rajasthan infighting: Jairam Ramesh

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said the party leadership will come up with a way to resolve the infighting in its Rajasthan unit while keeping the party above individuals.

The party faces a tussle for power in Rajasthan between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot.

But the two have presented a united front as the party's Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra passes through the state.

Ramesh said that after the yatra finishes, the election process in Rajasthan will start and there will be only seven or eight months left for the Assembly polls.

"I don't have knowledge about the individuals. But the party leadership will come up with a way forward which preserves the primacy of the organisation and not the primacy of any one individual or the other," Ramesh told PTI on the way from Suket to Devarighata of Jhalawar district.

He said that primacy of any individual is not important and the only objective is to find a way to strengthen the organisation.

The former Union minister reiterated that the party and its organisation are supreme.

Gehlot had used words 'nakara' and 'nikamma' against Pilot during the political crisis in July 2020 when Pilot, who was then Rajasthan deputy chief minister and the state Congress president, and 18 other MLAs of the party had revolted against him.

Asked about the factionalism in the Rajasthan Congress, Ramesh, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of communication, publicity and media, said, "The Congress has been a party of factions for 137 years." But he added that the members believe in the party's principles.

He said that in the 1980s, Rajasthan had Haridev Joshi, Shivcharan Mathur and Nawal Kishore Sharma who had their own factions.

"The Congress is not a cadre-based party like the BJP and CPI(M)," he said.

To a question on various posts in the organisation lying vacant across the country, he said not only in Rajasthan, but in other states also there are vacancies at the organisation level which will be filled in a time-bound manner.

"I think the vacancies will be filled before the plenary session scheduled in third week of February," he said.