Both Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot are expected to seek more seats for their respective camps.
New Delhi
After the Congress in Rajasthan announced that it would contest the upcoming Assembly elections in Rajasthan with united support of incumbent Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, it is believed that the party could face a challenging task of seat distribution, with both the leaders expected to seek more seats for their respective camps.
The party seems to be complying with its recent resolution of contesting the polls together, as both the camps of the till recently warring leaders have stopped taking on each other and talking against each other. A party insider said, “Both the leaders have become silent against each other, but at the same time, Pilot has also said recently that Rajasthan is his first love which means that there must have been a deal and that is that he would not be separated from the state. Besides, both the leaders are willing to work for the party together, but at the time of seat-sharing, there could be a lot of negotiations like what happened the last time.” Last time, differences between Pilot and Gehlot surfaced during ticket distribution ahead of Assembly polls. Both were in pursuit of getting maximum tickets for their loyalists. This had resulted in denial of tickets to many winning candidates, resulting in the Congress tally just stopping short of the halfway mark in the Assembly polls.
Moreover, when Gehlot loyalists were denied tickets from the Congress, he had, according to party insiders, covertly encouraged his loyalists to contest as independents. Thereby, out of the 13 independents who won, 10 were from the Gehlot camp. Pilot could not claim his stake on the chief ministerial position as only two dozen Sachin nominees had managed to win the elections, giving Gehlot an upper hand during the selection of chief minister.
Political analysts believe the Congress paid a heavy price in the Rajasthan Assembly election due to the unsolved feud between its two camps, led by then party general secretary Ashok Gehlot and its then state president Sachin Pilot, both of whom were contenders for the top post in the state.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 99 seats out of the 200, falling short of just two seats. It is believed that the party could have won more seats had it not submitted itself in front of the two leaders which had led to poor ticket distribution.