New Delhi: Hours after Sachin Pilot staged a rebellion against Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, the Congress high command backed the veteran saying the party will go to the polls this year over his achievements of the State government and the strength of the party. “The Congress government in Rajasthan with Ashok Gehlot as the CM has implemented many schemes and taken many new initiatives that have impacted the people profoundly. This has given the state a leadership position in governance in our country. The Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajasthan was an outstanding success made possible by the dedication and determination of the party in the state. Later in the year, the Congress will seek a renewed mandate from the people on the strength of these landmark achievements and the collective efforts of the party,” said Congress Communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh.
The official party reaction came hours after Pilot, a former state unit chief and ex-deputy chief minister, waged a rebellion of sorts against Gehlot by saying he would sit on a day-long fast on April 11 to protest the fact that no action had been taken by the State government in the corruption charges against BJP government led by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia.
As Pilot aired his views during a press conference in Jaipur, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge called a meeting of senior leaders to discuss the Rajasthan leadership, which has been hanging fire for a long. According to party insiders, Kharge discussed the pros and cons of Pilot’s move before deciding to side with Gehlot.
The official statement from the party was a clear hint to Pilot that no such act of indiscipline would be tolerated by the high command, said the sources, who acknowledged that the former deputy chief minister’s rebellion, had come at an unfortunate time with just months to go for the next Assembly polls. According to sources in the Pilot camp, the young leader had been seeking a resolution to the leadership issue in the poll-bound state for a long saying that indecision of the high command would impact the morale of the party workers.
The Gehlot-Pilot rivalry had been worrying the high command for a long, but somehow a decision could not be taken as the party got involved with the various agitational programmes related to the Adani issue and Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha after he was convicted and sentenced in a 2019 defamation case involving the name of PM Modi.
A few months ago, Gehlot had termed Pilot a “traitor”, but the young leader ignored the verbal attack saying he had faith in the high command. During Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra last year, both Gehlot and Pilot had been asked by the high command to sink their differences and work together. The yatra was a success and a decision over the leadership issue in Rajasthan was expected after the party’s plenary session at Raipur in February, but the status quo reportedly made the young leader anxious. The party’s support for Gehlot came days after Kharge, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lauded the State government for becoming the first state in the country to introduce Right to Health Bill. Earlier, Ramesh had said that both Gehlot and Pilot were assets for the Congress.
