The development again brings into open the power tussle in the Congress between the Pilot and the Gehlot factions in the state, putting pressure on the party high command to resolve it before the year-end polls.
“No action was taken (by the Gehlot government) on corruption by the previous Vasundhara Raje government. While in opposition, we had promised that an inquiry would be conducted in the mines scam of Rs 45,000 crore,” Pilot said at a press conference at his residence.
“With six-seven months left for the elections, the opponents can spread an illusion that there is some collusion. Therefore, action will have to be taken soon so that the Congress workers feel that there is no difference between our words and actions,” he said.
Pilot said he will observe the day-long fast at Shaheed Smarak.
April 11 is the birth anniversary of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, who belonged to the Saini community, the same community which Gehlot represents.
“Ashok Gehlot and I had made allegations together, how will we know until there is a fair investigation. If it comes out in the investigation that no one was guilty, then we will accept that Gehlot ji and I were liars. But until a case is registered, how will people believe that the allegations made by us are true or false,” Pilot said.
‘Demand will hurt party’
While some leaders said Pilot has raised the right demand, others say that his act would inflict great harm to the party in the upcoming election, particularly when the party is working with a strategy to repeat the government in the state.
A Congress leader said Pilot’s announcement was also a “kind of revolt” against Gehlot and this would certainly harm the party.
“At a time when the Congress government is leaving no stone unturned to retain power in the upcoming elections, Pilot’s announcement to sit on ‘Anshan’ will definitely send a wrong message among the masses. This should be avoided,” the Congress leader said.
On the other hand, Pilot supporters said issues raised by the leader before the party high command have not been addressed so far, which has disappointed them.
They said that the party workers wanted Pilot to be the chief minister but no decision was taken by the high command.
Power tussle
Gehlot and Pilot have been at loggerheads ever since the Congress formed the government in Rajasthan in December 2018 over the post of chief minister.
In July 2020, Pilot and a section of party MLAs rebelled openly, demanding a leadership change in the state. It led to a one-month-long political crisis that ended after assurance by the party high command to look into the issues raised by Pilot.
Following the revolt by Pilot and 18 other MLAs in 2020, Gehlot had used terms like “Gaddar”, “Nakara”, “Nikamma” for his former deputy and had accused him of being involved with the BJP leaders in a conspiracy to topple the Congress government.
A few days before Rahul Gandhi‘s Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Rajasthan from Madhya Pradesh, Gehlot had again targeted Pilot, calling him “Gaddar” again, in an interview to a news channel in November last year.
(With inputs from agencies)
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