Gehlot, Pilot Agree To Fight Rajasthan Polls Unitedly, Says Congress

Amid a festering leadership tussle in the Congress' Rajasthan unit, the party Monday said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot have agreed to fight the upcoming assembly elections unitedly and have left all issues to be resolved by the party high command.

Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal said in view of the upcoming Rajasthan assembly election, party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi had a detailed four-hour-long discussion with Ashok Gehlot.

Sachin Pilot joined the deliberations later which was held at Kharge's residence, he said.

"In this discussion, we have decided to fight the election unitedly. Both are in agreement that the Congress party has to go together and definitely we will win the election in Rajasthan," he told reporters after the meeting.

#WATCH | Delhi: Congress leader Sachin Pilot arrives at the residence of party president Mallikarjun Kharge, where Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and Rahul Gandhi are also present. pic.twitter.com/yeA1AtfwAJ

— ANI (@ANI) May 29, 2023

This is the first time after a long gap that the Rajasthan CM and his former deputy are meeting face to face in the presence of top party leadership, as reported by PTI.

"It is very clear that Rajasthan is going to be a strong state for the Congress party. We are going to win. Therefore, both the leaders Gehlot ji and Sachin ji have decided to go together. The Congress party will fight elections unitedly," Venugopal also said.

The AICC general secretary, organisation, said both the leaders have left all issues relating to Rajasthan to be resolved by the party's high command.

Kharge and Gandhi are holding parleys with leaders of poll-bound states in order to evolve the party strategy for the assembly elections to corner the BJP in these states.

The party leadership is also working hard to resolve the infighting in the Rajasthan unit ahead of assembly polls and set at rest the differences between the two leaders.

The Congress brass has already held discussions with top leaders from Madhya Pradesh in the morning, after which Gandhi said the party would win 150 seats in the state.

Earlier, Gehlot said the party high command is strong and it will never offer any position to any leader or worker to pacify him.

The meeting comes close on the heels of Pilot's ''ultimatum'' that if three demands he made from the state government were not met by the end of this month, he would launch a state-wide agitation. Pilot has asked for a high-level inquiry into the alleged scams that took place during the tenure of the former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje government, as one of his demands.

Speaking to reporters earlier, Gehlot said there is no such tradition in the party to offer posts to any leader in order 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 said when asked about reports of a formula being worked out to rope in Pilot.

Rubbishing such reports, he said it is only the creation of the media and some leaders may be getting such stories planted.

''Never has such a thing happened in the Congress so far and neither will it happen in the future. The Congress party 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,'' the chief minister asserted.

Gehlot and Pilot have been engaged in a power tussle since the Congress formed government in the state in 2018. In 2020, Pilot led a failed revolt against the Gehlot government after which he was removed from the posts of party's state unit president and deputy chief minister.

Pilot had last month defied a warning from the party and went ahead with a day-long fast targeting Gehlot over his ''inaction'' on alleged corruption during the previous Raje government.