Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Sachin Pilot on Monday have “unanimously agreed” to fight the upcoming state assembly elections in a “joint fight against the BJP,” AICC general secretary KC Venugopal announced on Monday after an over four hour-long meeting held in New Delhi with the party high command.
“We have decided to fight elections unitedly. Definitely, we will win the elections in Rajasthan. Both Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot have unanimously agreed with the proposal,” Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal told reporters.
“It is very clear that Rajasthan is going to be a strong state for the Congress party. We are going to win. Therefore, both the leaders Gehlot ji and Sachin ji have decided to go together. The Congress party will fight elections unitedly,” Venugopal he added.
In an effort to address the internal strife within the Rajasthan Congress, Chief Minister Gehlot and Pilot held a meeting with party leader Mallikarjun Kharge, in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.
Around 6 pm, Gehlot met Kharge at his residence, and shortly thereafter, Gandhi joined them. The Congress chief and Gandhi engaged in discussions with Gehlot for approximately thirty minutes, following which the party’s Rajasthan in-charge, Sukhjinder Randhawa, was summoned for further deliberations, according to reports.
Former Deputy Chief Minister Pilot, who has been criticising the Gehlot government for its alleged inaction against corruption during the previous BJP-led Vasundhara Raje government, arrived at Kharge’s residence two hours later to join the meeting.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh welcomed the move in a tweet and said the party is “well on its way to repeat its Karnataka success in Rajasthan as well.”
Notably, this marked the first face-to-face interaction between the Rajasthan Chief Minister and his former deputy in the presence of senior party leaders in quite some time.
Kharge and Gandhi are currently engaging in consultations with leaders from states that are heading towards elections. The purpose of these discussions is to develop a comprehensive party strategy for the upcoming assembly elections with the goal of outmaneuvering the BJP and gaining an advantage in these states.
The party leadership is actively making efforts to resolve the internal conflicts within the Rajasthan unit before the assembly polls, aiming to reconcile the differences between the two leaders.
Prior to this, the Congress leadership had also conducted discussions with key figures from Madhya Pradesh earlier in the day. Following these discussions, Gandhi expressed confidence in the party’s performance, stating that they would secure 150 seats in the state.
Pilot’s ‘Ultimatum’
The timing of this meeting closely follows Pilot’s “ultimatum,” wherein he stated that if his three demands were not fulfilled by the end of the month, he would initiate a statewide agitation. One of Pilot’s demands includes a high-level investigation into alleged scams that occurred during the tenure of former Chief Minister Raje’s government.
In recent remarks, Gehlot emphasised that the party’s high command possesses unwavering strength and there is no such tradition in the party of offering position in a bid to pacify a leader. “As far as I know, there is no such tradition in the Congress where any leader demands something and the party high command offers to give that position. We have not heard of such a formula ever,” Gehlot said earlier in the day in response to questions about reports suggesting a formula being devised to accommodate Pilot.
Rubbishing such reports, he said it is only the creation of the media, and some leaders may be getting such stories planted. “Never has such a thing happened in the Congress so far and neither will it happen in the future. The Congress party and the high command is very strong and no leader or worker has the courage to demand any position. It does not happen like that,” the chief minister asserted.
In response to the ongoing internal conflicts within the Rajasthan Congress, BJP minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said that the only scheme being followed by the Congress in the state is the ‘Kursi Bachao Yojana’ (Save the Chair Scheme). “CM Ashok Gehlot said that their problem will be sorted out, but it’s the people of Rajasthan who will sort out Congress. Unemployment has increased in the state while the government staged dramas of providing allowances. Exam papers are getting leaked. VAT on petrol is highest in Rajasthan,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
Since the Congress came into power in the state in 2018, Gehlot and Pilot have been embroiled in a power struggle. In 2020, Pilot spearheaded an unsuccessful rebellion against the Gehlot-led government, resulting in his removal from the positions of the party’s state unit president and deputy chief minister.
Last month, Pilot defied the party’s warning and conducted a day-long fast, targeting Gehlot over what he perceived as the Chief Minister’s lack of action regarding alleged corruption during the previous Raje government.
(With inputs from PTI)