In Pilot vs Gehlot feud, the letter that was the last straw

New Delhi, July 12: Amid a power tussle in the Rajasthan government, a letter asking Rajasthan's deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot to appear for questioning in a probe into attempts to destabilise the Congress government in the state is believed to have been the last straw that pushed the Ashok Gehlot government into a deep crisis.

The MLAs supporting Pilot cannot stand the repeated undermining of Pilot, also the state PCC chief, by the Gehlot camp and the letter by the police's special operations group (SOG) sent to the deputy chief minister was to "humiliate him".

Pilot is in Delhi, and MLAs supporting him have resolved that they cannot work under Gehlot's chief ministership after the letter was served to "publicly discredit" the PCC chief, and asserted that there were problems before also but this letter has crossed all limits and such humiliation cannot be tolerated.

However, refuting reports over the letter Gehlor clarified that "CM, Deputy CM, chief whip and some other ministers and MLAs have received notices from SOG to record their statements in connection with Congress Legislative Party's complaint regarding horse-trading by BJP. It's not appropriate to present it differently by some media outlets."

The notices to Gehlot and Pilot were issued after the SOG on Friday registered an FIR against two people, who have been detained, for their alleged involvement in horse-trading of Congress MLAs for toppling the state government.

Gehlot on Saturday accused the BJP of trying to topple his government by offering his legislators large sums of money, and said his administration is not just stable but will complete its five-year term.

The BJP had asked Gehlot to prove his allegation of horse-trading levelled against it or quit politics, and claimed he was targeting the opposition party as he was unable to check the infighting in the state Congress. Soon after it had won the Assembly election, both Gehlot and Pilot were in the race for the chief minister's post.

The party high command later named Gehlot as the CM and Pilot his deputy. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member state assembly.

with PTI inputs