Marathon meeting on Rajasthan: Gehlot, Pilot discuss troubles with Kharge, Rahul

Congress top leadership on Monday evening held a marathon discussion to resolve a growing crisis in its Rajasthan unit months ahead of state polls by making Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Sachin Pilot sit across a table and make peace.

The deliberations started at the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge where top leader Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal, state in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Gehlot and Pilot were present. Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Dotasra is not present.

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

Also Read: No tradition in Congress to offer posts to pacify leaders, says Ashok Gehlot ahead of Kharge meeting

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 on 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.

Amid speculation that a formula has been arrived at by giving Pilot a plum assignment at the state level, Gehlot had 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.

"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," he told reporters as he arrived in the capital for the meeting. 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 is very strong and no leader or worker has the courage to demand any position. It does not happen like that," he said.

The meeting came as the intercine war between Gehlot and Pilot intensified in the 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'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.