JAIPUR: AICC general secretary Ajay Maken on Friday gave enough indication that some ministers in the Ashok Gehlot government may be dropped in the impending cabinet reshuffle and given responsibility in the party organisation.
Maken, while talking to media after the executive committee meeting of the party, said a few ministers expressed desire to work for the organisation in his one-on-one meeting with them. Thanking them, he said, he himself had opted out of the Union ministry to work for the party in 2013. Maken had held one-on-one meeting with 115 MLAs of the party and some Independent MLAs supporting the government on Wednesday and Thursday before the executive committee meeting.
The MLAs were asked a set of questions included conduct and performance of district in-charge ministers, the implementation of government schemes in the state and in their constituency, name for district and block presidents, name for political appointments, what else required to be done to retain power in the state. Each MLA was given about eight to10 minutes. On the feedback from MLAs, Maken said, “I was told by every MLA how amazing development work has been carried out in their constituency, be it education, health, roads, hospitals. All MLAs are satisfied,” he said. The major concern how the party could retain power in the 2023 election where the state had a history of changing government in every five years.
“We mainly discussed how we can bring back a Congress government in 2023. In the state executive meeting also, we discussed that there should be better coordination between the government and the organisation so that together we can bring the Congress back to power," he said. Apart from the MLAs, Maken spoke separately with Gehlot, Pilot, state unit president Govind Singh Dotasra and speaker C P Joshi.
The party worried over the factional fight in the state unit between Sachin Pilot and Gehlot faction. The MLAs had emphasized on fostering unity in the party with political accommodation and better coordination between government and the party organization.
The party MLAs instead of highlighting the achievements of the government have been quarrelling among themselves giving fodder to the opposition and negative publicity to the party and government.
Maken has been holding extensive consultation to appoint district and block presidents which were lying vacant for the last one year after Sachin Pilot was removed from the post of party president. The executive of the PCC is also not completed. Maken had a luncheon with the chief minister before leaving for Delhi in the afternoon.
