The statements given by him suggest that his days in the Congress are numbered.
NEW DELHI: Former Rajasthan PCC chief Sachin Pilot is now isolated in the party. In fact, “the Khan Market gang” seems to be behind Pilot’s plight. The former Deputy CM of Rajasthan seems to have gone by the advice of this “gang”.
The statements given by him suggest that his days in the Congress are numbered. But the question is as to which party he would join after leaving Congress. The doors of BJP are open for him but only on the condition that he will have to stay away from Rajasthan’s politics. There is no dearth of contenders for CM post in Rajasthan BJP. The other option for Pilot is AAP. The newbie party is already looking for a face in Rajasthan. But AAP does not have any internal democracy. Everybody is bound to obey what AAP national coordinator Arvind Kejriwal says. Another speculation is that Sachin may form his own party. He may also contact Telangana CM K. Chandrashekar Rao who is expanding his party at the national level.
Notably, Sachin Pilot is not obeying the directions of the party high command. He is doing so despite Rahul Gandhi terming him as an asset for the party. AICC General Secretary K.C. Venugopal and general secretary Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who is state in charge, had asked every leader not to give any controversial statement like this. During Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajasthan’s Alwar, Rahul Gandhi had urged all the leaders to be united. But Sachin is not heeding any advice. He is not only targeting the government in the election year, but also doing his parallel politics through social media. The first mistake that Sachin Pilot made was that he stopped the senior leaders from contesting polls in 2018. However, after Sonia Gandhi’s intervention, many of them could fight elections. Sachin managed to secure tickets for his several supporters. But he could not ensure their victory. The Congress stopped short of a majority mark. Despite this, Sachin made a claim for the CM post. Sonia Gandhi’s policy has been that she always gave CM post to the leader who commands majority support of MLAs. Rahul Gandhi is also following the same policy. The CM post in Himachal Pradesh was given to the leader who had the support of the maximum number of legislators. Ashok Gehlot had support of 80 per cent of the MLAs elected in 2018. Independents also supported him. So, the high command appointed Gehlot as CM. But this was not acceptable to Sachin Pilot. Gehlot tried to maintain balance in the party. Even as the government completed a bit over a year, Covid-19 pandemic hit the state. Amid this crisis, Pilot turned rebel along with his supporter MLAs. As a result, the government was in trouble. He could not, however, succeed in his mission to topple the government. It happened for the first time in political history that a state party chief tried to topple his own government. After the intervention of senior leaders, Pilot and other rebels were allowed to join the Congress. But they are still making efforts to destabilise the government.
A political drama unfolded on 25 September last year when there was a conspiracy to replace CM Gehlot without the support of MLAs. The development was a setback to Sonia Gandhi as well. She was kept in the dark on the entire political scene. The leaders who were backing this operation from Delhi were also kept in the dark. The message was given about the Pilot camp having support of around 40-50 MLAs. After this, pressure was built to convene a CLP meeting to change the CM. But the high command was taken aback when more than 90 MLAs came out in support of Gehlot. Rather, several MLAs of Sachin’s camp too supported Gehlot. Only 4-5 legislators were left with Sachin. The Gandhi family was feeling embarrassed after the lies of the rebels’ camp got exposed. Anyway, Rahul managed to control the situation. He reposed trust in Gehlot. Ajay Maken was relieved of Rajasthan charge, and Randhawa was given his duty.
Sachin continued to target the Gehlot government through the media. A large section of the media ran stories about a change of guard. Rahul Gandhi still tried to unite the leaders. He termed both Gehlot and Pilot as an asset for the party before Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Rajasthan. Rahul tried to unite the factions despite knowing the truth of 25 September. Rahul lauded CM Gehlot’s schemes in what was a clear message that Rajasthan would continue to be led by him only. It amounted to instructions for Sachin and his supporters that they should now stop all the activities against the government. Sachin wanted to be PCC chief once again. But Rahul did not agree to it, as he had himself handed over the PCC post to Govind Singh Dotasra after dismissing Sachin in 2020. Sachin lost the support of his MLAs and even the senior leaders. In fact, the Khan Market gang’s advice led to Pilot’s isolation in the party. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to the Khan Market gang during the 2019 Lok Sabha election. A group of journalists spends a lot of time in restaurants at this expensive and posh South Delhi market. These scribes claim themselves to be the expert at making strategy to topple and form governments. Ever since PM Modi came to power, the gang is said to be ineffective now. But the journalists, who claim to have sound rapport with the Congress leadership, are still active here.