Breaking his silence two weeks after Congress lost all 25 seats in Rajasthan, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that his deputy Sachin Pilot should take responsibility for the party’s defeat in the Jodhpur Lok Sabha constituency where his son Vaibhav Gehlot contested.
In an interview to ABP News, Gehlot said: "Sachin Pilot said Congress would win with a huge majority in Jodhpur, where the party has six MLAs (legislators) and we had done a good job with campaigning there, so Sachin Pilot should take responsibility for losing Jodhpur seat". Gehlot added that if Pilot had vouched for Vaibhav’s victory, he should also own up the loss too.
However, the CM in a separate question refuted the reports of a feud between him and his deputy CM Sachin Pilot.
The chief minister’s son Vaibhav Gehlot lost by over 2.7 lakh votes to BJP leader and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. What came as a shock was that Vaibhav lost from the Sardarpura seat by 400 votes. Sardarpura was polling booth of Gehlot, who has been three-time minister, four-time legislator and five-time parliamentarian from Jodhpur from where his father Ashok Gehlot is an MLA.
Just before the declaration of the seats, there was a rumour that Pilot was not happy over Vaibhav's candidature. He said in one of his statements: "Those candidates will be given preference who have more chances of winnability instead of some incumbent MP, or a relative of a politician".
However, Gehlot had later clarified in a press conference that his son's candidature was decided by the party, not him. "If I was the one who wanted to give Vaibhav a chance to enter politics then I could have done that a decade ago. It's the party that decides", Gehlot had said.
The BJP won 24 seats and ally the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) won one this time in Rajasthan.