Amid speculation about Sachin Pilot leaving the party, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal on Wednesday expressed confidence that the dissident leader will remain in the party and labelled reports of him leaving the party as “rumours”.
Sources said Venugopal, who is in Kerala at present, has asked Pilot to meet him in Delhi in the coming days while the party’s Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa started one-on-one meetings with state ministers, including Mamta Bhupesh, Saleh Mohammad, Govind Meghwal and Murari Lal Meena, and MLAs, in Jaipur.
Randhawa and state party chief Govind Singh Dotasra also met Chief Minister Gehlot.
Venugopal said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and top leader Rahul Gandhi have undertaken the "very important" task of resolving the issues between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Pilot.
"After the meeting (on May 28), I have spoken to Sachin Pilot 2-3 times and we are discussing the finer details. We do not have any information about Sachin Pilot leaving the party officially. I have spoken to him only the other day (Monday)," Venugopal said.
He said the party's High Command has taken the strongest possible efforts to resolve the issue and they were hopeful that they would be able to resolve the issue.
Asked whether he expected Pilot to remain in the party, “only the day before yesterday (Monday), I spoke to him. He has not given any signal that he is going to leave the party. I find these as rumours.”
His remarks in Kerala's Alappuzha during an interaction with media came a day after speculation that Pilot is headed to form his own 'Pragatisheel Congress' party and that an indication of this is likely to come on Sunday. However, leaders close to Pilot had denied any such possibility.
Venugopal is in regular touch with Pilot as the leadership initiated a process to resolve the stalemate in Rajasthan Congress.
On Tuesday after his arrival, Randhawa said that he has no information about Pilot planning to leave Congress and said leaders would be given assignments according to their stature.
Pilot, sources said, has made it clear that he would not compromise on his three "core" demands -- probe against former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, reconstitution of Rajasthan Public Service Commission and compensation to youth who suffered due to question paper leaks.