Gehlot, Pilot agreed to fight Rajasthan polls unitedly: Congress after big meeting

Congress on Monday night projected a united face in Rajasthan with its central leadership saying that both Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot will unitedly fight the Assembly elections and defeat the BJP, after marathon deliberations in the national capital.

After the around four-hour meeting with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and top leader Rahul Gandhi, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal addressed the media with Gehlot and Pilot to emphasise that all is well in the party but did not elaborate on the peace or ceasefire formula.

Venugopal said both the leaders will jointly fight the elections and defeat the BJP. “Both the leaders are in agreement that the Congress has to go together and definitely, we will win the election in Rajasthan,” he said.

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Asked about who would be the face of the Congress in the election, Venugopal said both have left it to the High Command to decide.

Ahead of the meeting and amid speculation that a formula has been arrived at by giving Pilot a plum assignment at the state level, Gehlot fired the first shot earlier in the day saying party high command is strong and it will never offer any position to any leader or worker to pacify him.

This is the first time Gehlot and Pilot are sitting across the table with central leaders after the Rajasthan leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in December last year.

The meeting came as the internecine war between Gehlot and Pilot intensified in recent months with the latter holding a day-long fast in April and a five-day 'padayatra' in May demanding an immediate probe into charges of corruption against former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Pilot has been eyeing Gehlot’s chair but the veteran leader has managed to outsmart his younger rival.

The meeting, which was scheduled to be held last week, was postponed following the prolonged crisis in Karnataka while choosing ministers. On Monday also, it was initially scheduled in the afternoon but was postponed after a meeting in Madhya Pradesh went beyond schedule.

The first to arrive for the meeting was Gehlot at around 6 PM. He held a meeting with Kharge, Rahul and Venugopal where he is learnt to have expressed his reservations over the High Command giving prominence to Pilot, whom he held responsible for a failed attempt in 2020 to unseat him.

Gehlot had a discussion with the top leadership alone for around 2:15 hours before Pilot joined them.

Gehlot said earlier in the day, “As far as I know, there is no such tradition in the Congress where any leader demands something and the party high command offers to give that position. We have not heard of such a formula ever." It is only the creation of the media and some leaders may be getting such stories planted, he said in an apparent hint about Pilot and his supporters.

"Never has such a thing happened in the Congress so far and neither will it happen in the future. The Congress and the High Command are very strong and no leader or worker has the courage to demand any position. It does not happen like that," he said.

Pilot's press conference attacking Gehlot, though without naming him, in April had not gone well with the Congress leadership as it came in the midst of the Karnataka campaign. However, the leadership did not precipitate a crisis and ignored the protest.

Sources said Gehlot has been trying to impress upon the leadership that giving any prominence to Pilot would backfire as the party would find it difficult to explain, especially in the wake of his allegations and charges against the Congress government.