Whoever the PCC chief, Gehlot is always the Emperor Ashok!

Whoever the Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Gehlot is always the Emperor Ashok! Since 1998, when Gehlot was annointed as the chief minister of the state for the first time, he is the party’s chosen one for the top post. 

In 1998, Gehlot became the chief minister after Congress won a landslide in the state with 153 seats. This was the third time in state when the Congress secured two-third majority in the assembly since 1972, and then in 1980.

In 1998, leader of the opposition in the assembly Parasaram Maderna was touted to be a popular choice for chief minister. Being a seasoned politician who had stood firm in front of chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in assembly and a prominent Jat leader, Maderna was considered to be the frontrunner for the chief minister’s post. However, Ashok Gehlot who was then the president of the PCC became the chief minister for the first time. 

In the subsequent elections in 2003 the party was reduced to just 56 seats paving way for the successful entry of Vasundhara Raje as chief minister for the first time. Around the same time after the party’s spectacular defeat, Congress leader CP Joshi was appointed the president of PCC. 

Joshi became close to Rahul Gandhi in the subsequent years and worked towards strengthening the party which was relatively weak after election debacle.

In 2008, the party went to polls with under Joshi’s stewardship  and secured 96 seats and emerged as the single largest party defeating BJP. Call it hard luck, even though Congress bagged 96 seats, CP Joshi lost the elections by an unbelievable 1 vote from Nathdwara. The party turned to Gehlot for a second time. Joshi, meanwhile, got elected for Lok Sabha from Chittorgarh and became a union minister. 

History would repeat itself once again, ten years hence, even when the party would be routed in 2013 in a historic drubbing. The Congress was reduced to just 21 seats with BJP jokingly saying  it was a number which could be accommodated in a bus to arrive at the Vidhan Sabha. BJP broke all records and got 163 seats. The Congress made Sachin Pilot the PCC chief in 2014. Once again Pilot, 37, started strengthening the party. The results could be seen in back-to-back bypolls held  in 2014 and 2018, which the party won. However, after polls, the Rajasthan CMs name was already blowing in the winds.