Rajasthan: Sachin Pilot A Traitor, Can't Be Made Chief Minister, Says CM Gehlot

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot called Sachin Pilot a 'gaddar' (traitor) on Thursday and said he cannot replace him as he had revolted against the Congress in 2020 and tried to topple his own government.

The remarks have further widened the fissures in the Congress party in Rajasthan, where Assembly polls are slated next year.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, is also set to enter the desert state.

Pilot, who walked alongside Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Madhya Pradesh on 24 November, did not react to Gehlot's remarks.

Gehlot also alleged that Union Home Minister Amit Shah was involved in Pilot's rebellion, when some Congress MLAs loyal to him were holed up in a Gurugram resort for more than a month and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited them often.

The veteran leader also said the Congress can replace him with any of its 102 MLAs in Rajasthan except Pilot if the top leadership feels that the prospects of the party would improve in next year's Assembly polls.

'The MLAs will never accept someone who has revolted and has been dubbed as a gaddar. How can he become the chief minister? How can the MLAs accept such a person as the chief minister?

'I have proof that Rs 10 crore each were distributed to the MLAs holed up in a Gurugram resort for toppling the Congress government in Rajasthan,' Gehlot told NDTV.

He said one will never find an example where a party president 'tries to topple his own government'.

Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Punia has, however, denied the charge that the saffron party was involved in paying money to Congress legislators in 2020 to defect.

Gehlot said if Pilot had apologised to the MLAs and won them over, things would have been different.

'Till now, he has not apologised. If he had apologised, I would not have had to apologise,' the CM said, referring to his apology to former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi after more than 90 MLAs close to him did not allow a Congress Legislature Party meeting to take place.

Asked if Pilot can still replace him if the high-command decides so, Gehlot said it is a hypothetical question. 'How will that happen? That cannot happen,' he said.

Gehlot said a recent meeting of the party MLAs after they did not allow the CLP meet to take place was not a rebellion but a 'revolt against Pilot who tried to topple his own government'.

Gehlot and Pilot have been at loggerheads over chief ministership ever since the Congress won the Rajasthan polls in 2018.

While Gehlot has been saying that Pilot's 2020 rebellion cannot be ignored and that he does not enjoy the support of a majority of the Congress MLAs, the Pilot camp has been claiming that the legislators want a change in the leadership.

One of the factors seen to be going in Pilot's favour is the assumption that Pilot commands the Gujjar vote bank in Rajasthan and parts of Madhya Pradesh.

An unhurried analysis would reveal that he doesn’t.

Both in 2020, and now, Pilot was unable to get the backing of more than a handful of legislators, and once his bolt was shot, slunk quietly back to the doldrums.

Worse, the Gujjar community stayed remarkably quiet about Pilot’s 2020 attempt, and made no noises in support or sympathy.

Even so, the prevailing belief in senior Congress circles outside Rajasthan, and especially at their national headquarters, seems to be that if Pilot is not accommodated at a senior level within the Congress, they would lose this vital Gujjar vote bank, and Rajasthan.

Even so, one quip doing the rounds in Rajasthan since October is this: ‘if Gehlot stays on as CM, the Congress will lose 40 seats to the BJP, but if Pilot becomes CM, the Congress will lose 60 seats to the BJP!’

In conclusion, whatever the Congress does from here, or is forced to do, another state seems set to slip out of its hands.

With inputs from PTI.