Rajasthan crisis blows over, Sachin Pilot meets Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

The month-long political crisis in Rajasthan blew over on Monday with rebel leader Sachin Pilot meeting Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra pledged to work in the interest of the party and the government in the state.

After a series of back-channel talks, Pilot drove down to meet Rahul and Priyanka at the former’s 12, Tughlaq Lane residence, a meeting that appeared to put an end to the rebellion in the Rajasthan Congress that had pushed Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s government on the brink.

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Congress President Sonia Gandhi has decided that the AICC will set up a three-member committee to address the issues raised by Sachin Pilot and the aggrieved MLAs and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof, AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal said in a statement.

“Sachin Pilot has committed to working in the interest of Congress party and Congress government in Rajasthan,” Venugopal said.

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Pilot and MLAs supporting him will now attend the Congress Legislature Party meeting later this week and also vote in favour of the Gehlot government in case the chief minister seeks a trust vote in the Rajasthan assembly session beginning Friday.

Bhanwarlal Sharma, an MLA from the Pilot camp, rushed to Jaipur soon after Pilot’s meeting with the Gandhis and met Gehlot at his residence.

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“All my grievances are now gone. Ashok Gehlot is our leader. He will be Chief Minister for five years,” Sharma told reporters in Jaipur. Congress had accused Sharma of negotiating a deal with Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to topple the Gehlot government. Gehlot camp had released audio tapes of the purported conversation.

Pilot, who was the Deputy Chief Minister and Rajasthan Congress President, had stayed away from party meetings from July 13 following differences with Gehlot, whom he accused of high-handedness. Pilot was stripped of both the posts on July 14 and two of the 18 MLAs supporting him – Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena – removed as ministers suspended from the party.

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The immediate trigger for the rebellion was a notice by the state police to Pilot and Gehlot among others in connection with a case of horse-trading during the Rajya Sabha elections in June.

The first signs of a thaw emerged last week when the Special Operations Group of Rajasthan Police, which was investigating the horse-trading charges moved the court seeking to drop the sedition charges in the FIR and hand over the case to the Anti Corruption Bureau.