Don't write him off just yet

Whatever the outcome of the coming assembly election, Ashok Gehlot is firmly ensconced in the Congress inner circle

Ashok Gehlot, former chief minister of Rajasthan, is on the Congress list of nominees and will contest the assembly elections. Given the centrality of Gehlot’s role, especially in the recent assembly election in Gujarat, everyone thought he would be retained in central politics, leaving Rajasthan to a younger set of hands. But Congress chief Rahul Gandhi obviously doesn’t want to take any chances in a state that seems ripe for the picking and is deploying every resource regardless of age.

Gehlot is a pretty formidable adversary though he comes across as an unsophisticated, polite and soft-spoken man who used to, till