IT News
New Delhi, Aug 11:
Former Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot, who had rebelled against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot with 19 dissident legislators is back in Congress following his meeting with former party chief Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday.
The meeting took place in Congress war room 15-GRG. The Congress MP and AICC member from Maharashtra Rajiv Satav, is stated to have played the role of mediator to bring back Pilot to discussion table with Rajiv Gandhi. Pilot, considered close to Gandhi had bitterly criticised Gehlot. Yet Gandhi had not commented on it.
This is the first time that Gandhi met Pilot since the latter left Jaipur after the Special Operations Group under Gehlot’s ministry, issued him a show-cause notice in a case involving a plot to bring down the government. Monday’s meeting took place nearly after a month after Pilot and dissident Rajasthan legislators left Jaipur to rebel against Gehlot.
Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal told media that party Chief Sonia Gandhi has agreed to set up a three member committee to go into the issues raised by Pilot and his supporters and resolve the dispute before the Rajasthan assembly session scheduled to commence on 14 August, which is likely to feature a floor test.
After the meeting with Gandhi, Pilot told media that he was hopeful that their demands will be met with. The fight is not for any position, but to ensure that those who strived hard to solidify the base of Congress in Rajasthan, should be accommodated properly in the government. The assurances given before Government formation should be full filled. He was aware that the party which gives you the post, can also withdraw it, he added.
Till now Pilot had insisted upon the removal of Gehlot as chief minister as a pre-condition for any sort of rapprochement, while the Congress had asked him and his legislators supporting him to give up the “hospitality” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before starting a conversation on resolving the current impasse.
While the Gehlot camp has been claiming the support of 102 legislators in the 200-member House, Pilot’s camp was not able to increase its numbers from 19, although this number was previously claimed to be at least 30 by Pilot and his aides.
In the run up to the assembly session, the opposition BJP shifted 20 of its 72 legislators to Gujarat to prevent any poaching attempts by the Congress.
In the meanwhile the BJP has organised a meeting of its legislators and those belonging to its alliance partner, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) of Hanuman Beniwal on Tuesday. The Rajasthan high court is expected to hear a petition challenging the merger of six MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with the Congress on Tuesday. These BSP legislators have since moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of their case from Rajasthan high court to the country’s top court.
