Jaipur: After Congress president Rahul Gandhi lashed out at some senior leaders for putting the interests of their sons above that of the party at the Congress Working Committee meet on Saturday, the “settled” power equation in Rajasthan over the top post between the chief minister Ashok Gehlot and the deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot has gone for a toss.
Some state ministers and Lok Sabha candidates have openly targeted Gehlot for the loss suffered by the party in the recent Lok Sabha polls. Perhaps not coincidentally, most of them are well-known Pilot loyalists.
The transport minister in the state, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, who had put out statements against Gehlot to favour Pilot in the past, stated that if the Congress president finds fault with the senior leaders, he has the right to fix accountability and take corrective measures. Ramesh Meena, another minister from Karauli, Pilot’s stronghold in eastern Rajasthan, said that the defeat should be “introspected” and “accountability” fixed.
In a post on Facebook, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) secretary Sushil Asopa, a Pilot supporter, had written that Sachin Pilot should have been made the chief minister instead of Ashok Gehlot. He wrote, “Wherever you go in Rajasthan, you hear only one voice that the results of the Lok Sabha elections would have been different, had the party made Sachin Pilot chief minister as a reward for his hard work over five years.”
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Campaign rally data highlighting how Gehlot neglected other seats and campaigned largely only in Jodhpur for his son Vaibhav Gehlot are being circulated and carried as the lead story in local dailies.
The data claim that out of the 130 campaign rallies and road shows led by Gehlot in the state, 93 were held in Jodhpur alone. However, data disclosed by Gehlot’s campaign team to The Wire are quite different. They say there were a total of 104 rallies that Gehlot took part in, spanning from March 14 to May 4, of which only 14 were held in Jodhpur.
As per party insiders, deputy chief minister Pilot is conspiring to compel Gehlot to step down as chief minister. He is urging his loyalists to speak out against Gehlot in the media and bring the party’s defeat in Jodhpur to the forefront.
“Sachin Pilot is making Vaibhav’s defeat a big issue for his own benefit. Even in 2014, when Pilot was the Rajasthan PCC chief, he himself lost the Ajmer Lok Sabha seat and the party couldn’t win a single seat. He holds two crucial posts in the state now – Rajasthan PCC chief and deputy chief minister – but is still putting the blame of the loss on the chief minister as if he is the sole person responsible for the performance of the entire party,” a senior official in the party said on the condition of anonymity.
While media reports on the resignation of agriculture minister Lalchand Kataria have surfaced, there has been no official confirmation from the governor’s office. The party official who spoke to The Wire said that hype is being created around this to create an impression of a fragile government in the state to the central leadership.
On social media, too handles like “Sachin Pilot for CM” and “Gujjar news Rajasthan” are making personal attacks against Ashok Gehlot, suggesting that making Gehlot the chief minister led to the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
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Congress’s Lok Sabha candidate from the Jaipur seat, Jyoti Khandelwal, also wrote to Rahul Gandhi asking for introspection on the lethargic attitude of booth-level workers. “I’ve written to Congress president Rahul Gandhi to use my allegations on the Jaipur seat as a pilot project and investigate what went wrong within the party. I’m sure if he’ll seek answers to questions like why the party workers were not present near the polling booths on voting day, we’ll be able to understand that the problem lies within the party and not outside,” Khandelwal told The Wire.
She has also accused party spokesperson Archana Sharma, who is close to the Gehlot camp, of not working efficiently in her segment during the elections. “I can even present a video as proof, where Sharma’s husband can be seen saying that he will put in all efforts to make the BJP candidate win the Jaipur seat,” she added.
This is the second consecutive time that the Congress has been reduced to zero seats in the Lok Sabha polls in Rajasthan. This time, though, targeted accusations have led to turmoil within the state unit.