Sachin Pilot takes off for showdown with Ashok Gehlot
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, October 10: Rajasthan Congress appears poised for a mega power tussle, with the party high command taking their eyes off from Jaipur. Assessing that the Congress high command has been browbeaten by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his political rival Sachin Pilot on Monday hit the road to show that he is not a political lightweight.
Pilot seems to have unleashed the full might of the Gurjar and Yadav support base to project to the party high command that he could carry the weight of the expectations of Congress in Rajasthan. Former Deputy Chief Minister is learnt to have got the signal from New Delhi that he has to prove his support base in Rajsthan after Gehlot sent the Central observers of the party – Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken – rushing back to the national capital without carrying their mandate to get the resolution passed to authorize the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to decide on the successor of the incumbent Chief Minister.
The Congress high command is learnt to be in no mood to forget and forgive Gehlot’s scripted Jaipur drama which embarrassed the Gandhis. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had wanted that Pilot should have succeeded Gehlot to allow a young face to take over the leadership in Rajsthan. But Gehlot’s eagerness to carve out a space for his own dynasty by promoting his son in Rajasthan has further infuriated the Congress high command.
Pilot who began his journey from Japir was given a rousing reception in Jhalawar Patan and Kota, with Guurjar and Yadav supporters coming out on the street in full force. Pilot, however, maintained for the record that he will be striving for the success of Congress in the next year’s Assembly elections in Rajasthan. Pilot is looking a little wiser after his last episode of showdown with Gehlot, focusing in showing his street power and dedicating the sound bites for the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly elections.
The timing of Pilot’s show of strength suggests that he wouldn’t allow Gehlot the comfort of an uncontested stake in Jaipur. He will insist that there is a leadership change in Jaipur after the election for the post of president in Congress. He’s hoping to get the support of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Congress national general secretary in his battle against Gehlot.
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