As Sachin Pilot’s camp pushes Congress to make him the chief minister, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot on Thursday dismissed the demand, saying a “gaddar (traitor) cannot be chief minister”. In an interview with NDTV on Thursday, he called Pilot a traitor six times. Gehlot’s statement came amid a raging crisis in Rajasthan Congress, where he holds the CM post.
“A gaddar (traitor) cannot be Chief Minister,” Gehlot said on Thursday. He reiterated his stand on the matter and said the Congress High Command cannot make Sachin Pilot the Chief Minister, “a man who doesn’t have 10 MLAs, who revolted against his own party”.
Talking about Sachin Pilot’s 2020 revolt, Gehlot said it was “funded by the BJP”. “In a first for India, a party’s own president tried to bring it down.” he said, adding it was enabled by senior BJP leaders including Amit Shah.
Gurjar leader threatens to oppose Bharat Jodo Yatra
Meanwhile, a Gurjar leader, Vijay Singh Bainsla, threatened to oppose Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Rajasthan unless Sachin Pilot is made the CM. Despite so, Pilot refused to side with the Gurjar leader’s claim, and said the BJP was trying to create disturbances. “No matter how hard the BJP tries, the yatra will be successful,” Pilot had said when asked about Bainsla’s threat.
Earlier, Gehlot had said his government will try to address Bainsla’s grievances. “This is democracy and everyone has the right to speak. We are ruling on the basis of the Constitution and the right to speak cannot be taken away. If there is any demand or suggestion, we will hear it out and try to address the grievances,” he said.
In his remarks, Bainsala said the Gurjar community had voted Congress to power in Rajasthan, believing a person from their community will be made CM. To this, Pilot said the Congress was reduced to 21 seats in the 2013 assembly elections, but the people gave it a mandate in the 2018 elections. Talking about the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the former deputy chief minister said he was confident that the yatra will be “historic” and that the people are excited.
‘BJP Conspired to Topple my government in 2020’
Ashok Gehlot also took a swipe at BJP during a rally Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur on Thursday, and said the party was behind taking 19 Congress MLAs to Manesar in 2020 to topple his government in the state. He hit back at the Pilot camp, and said that a conspiracy was hatched by the BJP, so that Sachin Pilot would replace him as CM. Gehlot named an independent MLA Ramkesh Meena and said that the independents had saved his government back then.
“Under a conspiracy by the BJP, 19 MLAs of the Congress were taken to Manesar by BJP. We had to pay for hotel stays for 34 days,” he said. Earlier, a minister from the Pilot camp had alleged that attempts were being made to defame Pilot.
Earlier on Wednesday, but Pilot and Gehlot took part in a meeting organized by Rahul Gandhi, related to Bharat Jodo Yatra’s scheduled arrival in Jaipur. According to reports, both of them refused to see eye to eye during the meeting, and also didn’t sit together.
Gehlot’s September Rebellion
In September, around 92 legislators from the Gehlot camp attended a parallel meeting hosted by Shanti Dhariwal at his residence in Jaipur and skipped the legislature party meeting convened for passing a resolution authorising the Congress chief to appoint a successor to Gehlot, who had then announced to contest for the Congress presidential election.
The MLAs had opposed Gehlot’s arch-rival Sachin Pilot’s possible elevation to the CM post and demanded that Gehlot’s successor should be chosen from his camp. They also mentioned Pilot’s 2020 rebellion, saying the party must reward those who stood by it during that crisis.
Later, Congress served show-cause notice to three Rajasthan ministers – Shanti Dhariwal and Mahesh Joshi, and Dharmendra Rathore — for “grave indiscipline” Gehlot had also apologised to then party interim chief Sonia Gandhi over the rebellion by MLAs from his camp and pulled himself out of the Congress presidential race
Also Read: ‘Shoulder to Shoulder…’: Rahul Gandhi Joined for the First Time By Sister Priyanka in Bharat Jodo Yatra
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