A police notice at first and then the big rift in Rajasthan

Jaipur, July 14: The long-standing rift between Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot is out in the open.

It began with police notice to Pilot over a probe concerning an alleged attempt to topple the Gehlot government. On July 10, a notice of the Special Operations Group of the state police's anti-terror squad was sent to Pilot. It asked him and others to appear for questioning in connection with the case registered by the ATS stating that there was a plot to bring down the Gehlot government.

The SOG said that on Saturday, it had arrested BJP members Bharat Malani and Ashok Singh for allegedly trying to topple the government by offering Rs 20 crore bribe each to unspecified legislators. An FIR was also filed under the Indian Penal Code for sedition and criminal conspiracy.

It may be recalled that Gehlot had on Saturday accused the BJP to trying to buy legislators like goats and said that the BJP's brazen attempt was thwarted by the Congress.

On Saturday, Pilot arrived in Delhi and met with senior Congress leader, Ahmed Patel to discuss the issue. He told Patel about his differences with Gehlot and also that matters had gone too far. There were 19 Congress legislators with him, who have been lodged in different resorts.

On Sunday, several legislators met with Gehlot and expressed their support for him. Later on, Congress rushed two central observers to Jaipur to sort out the issue.

Following the meeting, state-in-charge, Avinash Pandey said that the 109 MLAs have signed their letters of support related to Ashok Gehlot. Following this, Gehlot called for a meeting of Congress legislators on Monday morning.

In a late-night statement, Pilot's team said that he had the backing of 30 legislators. Pilot then turned down an offer by the central observer, Randeep Singh Surjewala to discuss the issue with an open mind.

Gehlot, later came before the cameras and flashed a victory sign. The legislators were then packed off to a resort. Later, Pilot released a video of his supporters at a hotel located in the outskirts of Delhi. He once turned down a request for a meeting of the Congress legislature party.