New Delhi: The Congress on Friday took note of Sachin Pilot’s 'Jan Sangarsh Yatra', which has been dubbed as a challenge to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, but decided not to precipitate any crisis for now by taking any punitive action against the young leader. “We have taken note of the yatra. I will brief our President Mallikarjun Kharge after the Karnataka results and he will take the final call on the matter,” AICC in-charge of Rajasthan SS Randhawa told ETV Bharat after he reviewed the state’s political affairs and organisational issues, along with his three deputies Virendra Rathore, Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin, Amrita Dhawan and state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasara.
The AICC has been trying to find a solution to the old Gehlot vs Pilot rivalry ahead of the assembly polls later this year, but without much success. Pilot wants a change in leadership while the AICC prefers to go to the polls under Gehlot’s leadership. Pilot’s latest move to take out a 125 km 'Jan Sangharsh Yatra' from Ajmer to Jaipur during May 11-15 to highlight the issues of youth and corruption in the previous BJP chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s tenure has been described by the Gehlot camp as a rebellion of sorts.
In a significant move hours before the crucial AICC meet convened by Rajasthan in-charge Randhawa, state unit chief Dotasara, a close aide of Gehlot, made it clear that Pilot’s yatra was neither approved by the state unit nor the AICC. According to party insiders, the issue was discussed during the state review meeting on Friday where both the pros and cons of Pilot’s yatra were discussed and a final decision on the matter was left for Kharge to take once he is through with the Karnataka polls where the party is confident of forming a government.
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For those who are miffed over Pilot’s provocation, the AICC needs to seek an explanation from the young leader over the yatra just four months ahead of the polls. This group argues that Pilot, who had earlier sat on a one-day protest fast over the same issues, had been asked to refrain from such activities. Furthermore, Pilot chose to announce his yatra on May 9 when Rahul Gandhi was in Mount Abu, Rajasthan to attend a party training camp for workers.
For those who support Pilot, though the young leader is taking out a yatra at the individual level, he has not said anything against the party so far. This faction points out that the party’s stand too is against corruption and therefore to target Pilot for raising corruption cases during the BJP rule would not send the right signals.
Recently, Gehlot, who has been blaming Pilot for staging a revolt and trying to topple his government with the BJP’s help in 2020, dropped a bombshell by saying that Raje had saved his regime. He had also urged the rebel MLAs belonging to Pilot camp to return the money they had taken from the BJP. Pilot has been saying that he had urged Gehlot to take action against Raje but the Chief Minister had been sitting over the matter.
