Sachin Pilot’s ongoing ‘yatra’ is being seen as a direct challenge to the party high command.
NEW DELHI: The Congress’ “continued trust” in Sachin Pilot, who was sacked as PCC chief for the alleged attempt to topple his own party government in Rajasthan, turned out to be a “suicidal step”. The party high command remained a mute spectator to Pilot’s repeated attempts aimed at destabilizing his own party government for over four years. Surprisingly, Pilot did not draw any action by the leadership for all the anti-party activities.
Sachin Pilot’s ongoing “yatra” is being seen as a direct challenge to the party high command as it has come at a time when the Congress is trying to put up a show of unity in the election year. The BJP which is itself a divided house is benefiting from this.
In fact, both the Congress and the BJP are facing internal problems. The only difference is that Sachin has adopted a rebellious gesture ignoring the high command, while the BJP leaders are not openly voicing their resentment due to fear of their leadership. Pilot is in a predicament of his own making. He cannot remain in the Congress now, and BJP will not at the same time accept him. Obviously, Pilot kept on doing what harmed the Congress while being part of it. Sachin allegedly tried to topple his own party government in 2020. After the plan failed, he continued his efforts to destabilize the government. The incident that happened on 25 September, 2022 harmed Congress party, the Gandhi family and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. He was behind all this. The BJP made mockery of the Congress after this incident. His day-long dharna on 11 April and “padyatra” from 11 May are the two activities that are also going against Congress’ interests in the election year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tour to Rajasthan took a potshot at Congress amid Sachin Pilot’s on-going yatra.
After allegedly toppling the government in MP in 2020, BJP was seen “playing its role in creating political instability” in Rajasthan. Gehlot’s timely action saved the government in Rajasthan. But Sachin at the advice of the Khan Market gang kept trying to destabilize the government. He went to any extent to do so. Apart from giving strength to BJP, Sachin is provoking the high command to sack him so that he can play the victim card. The party is also trying to expose him. As Sachin Pilot’s politics gets exposed, his popularity has also gone down. There is no public anger against Gehlot and his government. The graph of Gehlot has also gone up due to Bachat Rahat camps and other welfare schemes. Public is aware that Pilot is on the agenda of defeating his own government and helping the BJP. High command may take action against him any time. After returning from Karnataka on Sunday, Kharge might take action, sources say. Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa may submit a report to Kharge on the same day. The high command is in no mood to show any leniency to Sachin Pilot. He held a press conference and proceeded on the yatra despite the high command’s instructions against such moves.
Sachin Pilot chose Tuesday deliberately for his yatra as that day Rahul Gandhi was in Rajasthan and voting was to take place in Karnataka very next day. The party is seeing Sachin Pilot’s campaign as an attempt to weaken the issue of corruption that the Congress is raising. State Congress office secretary Ram Singh Kasawa has accused Sachin Pilot of helping BJP. Prashant Kishor, who is allegedly trying to weaken the grand alliance government in Bihar by floating his own party, is said to be the strategist of Sachin Pilot. Rahul Gandhi is said to be unhappy with Sachin Pilot’s press conference, as the former PCC chief tried to link Sonia Gandhi’s name to the September incident, while more than 90 MLAs of total 102 legislators had opposed the proposal to make Sachin Pilot CM. These MLAs insisted that only one of the MLAs who were backing the government during the crisis in 2020 should be given the top post. The person who betrayed will not be accepted as CM. Rahul Gandhi after knowing this reality sided with Gehlot then. Sachin Pilot has not till date apologised for what happened in 2020. Even as Sachin crossed “Laxman Rekha” on Tuesday, Congress party tweeted in favour of Gehlot saying that indiscipline will not be accepted. Gehlot’s schemes were admired. Congress’ official twitter account gave messages supporting Gehlot. The party termed Sachin Pilot’s yatra as a preposterous exercise. Sachin Pilot has given BJP an opportunity to build a campaign against Gehlot. Till now, the saffron party was clueless about how to run a campaign against the government.
The political development is impacting the BJP politics as well. Sachin has given anxious moments to Vasundhara Raje camp by raking up corruption issues when she was in power. Raje is isolated in the party now-a-days. She organised religious programmes in the past to give a message to her supporters that she would be projected as the CM candidate. However, the party is preparing to fight polls on PM Modi’s face. Observers believe that the BJP may use Sachin Pilot to control the damage that Raje factor might be doing to its poll prospects. There is more turmoil in store in the Congress and BJP camps in days to come.