November 21, 2024

New Chapter In The Never-Ending Pilot-Gehlot Saga

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-05-09 13:30:53

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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Just when it seems that there is lull in the tiff between Sachin Pilot and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, one or the other does something which rekindles the fires. This time, by claiming in a speech that former chief minister and BJP stalwart Vasundhara Raje and some other BJP leaders saved his government when Pilot had rebelled in 2020, Gehlot has provided Pilot the fodder he needed to renew his attack on the chief minister.

Pilot said that Gehlot's speech proves that although he is a Congressman, his leader is Vasundhara Raje and not Sonia Gandhi. He has also said that Gehlot is beholden to Raje and that is why he is not pursuing corruption cases against her. Pilot has been campaigning against his own government, holding marches and sit-ins to demand that corruption charges against the Vasundhara Raje government must be thoroughly investigated and the guilty brought to book. He also announced that he hold a Jan Sangharsha Yatra from Ajmer to Jaipur to press for his demand. He reiterated that he will not quit the party as he did not want to ruin its chances before the elections.

In launching an all-out attack on Gehlot just a day before the crucial Karnataka elections, Pilot has shown that the differences between Gehlot and him have worsened since he held his sit-in in Jaipur a couple of months back. He said that Gehlot has called him many names including gaddar (traitor) and nikkamma (useless) but he never responded in the party's interest. But he said that Gehlot should explain how he says that the BJP tried to topple his government and that Raje and other BJP leaders saved it in the same breath.

The worsening of the crisis and the Congress high command's inaction shows that Pilot is being pushed to the wall. Observers believe that Pilot is likely to leave the Congress a couple of months before the state elections. He will probably not join the BJP immediately but is likely to form his own outfit. If Pilot leaves it will be a huge setback for the Congress as the 2018 win for the party was in a major part due to the tireless and effective campaign run by Pilot and his supporters.