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Sachin Pilot met Priyanka Gandhi, in talks with other top brass: Ajay Maken
Sachin Pilot was in Delhi last week waiting for an audience with senior party leaders. Although he was expected to meet the central leadership over his demands, Pilot returned to Rajasthan after meeting AICC general secretary Ajay Maken. This, in turn, gave fuel to the talks of him being sidelined.
Sachin Pilot is a senior leader of the Congress party and there is no way that he will not be given an appointment with party leadership if he seeks an audience, said Ajay Maken, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), to news agency ANI on Friday. His statements come amid a renewed political tussle in the Rajasthan Congress, as members loyal to Sachin Pilot accuse Congress of sidelining him within the party in favour of the state's chief minister, Ashok Gehlot.
"Sachin Pilot is a senior leader and an asset to the party. It is impossible that he seeks time from a party leader to meet and is not given an appointment. Priyanka-ji has spoken with him. Many leaders, including KC Venugopal, have also been speaking to him," said Ajay Maken while speaking on the matter.
The Sachin Pilot faction of Rajasthan legislators has recently ramped up on the pressure on the Ashok Gehlot government, reportedly demanding a cabinet expansion as well as other political appointments. Pilot himself was in Delhi last week waiting for an audience with senior party leaders. Although he was expected to meet the party central leadership over his demands, Pilot later returned to Rajasthan after meeting AICC general secretary Ajay Maken. This, in turn, gave fuel to the talks of him being sidelined within the party.
Senior Congress leader Depender Singh Shekhawat later rubbished all reports of a "bargain" for positions in the cabinet, and said that the Pilot camp is only striving to seek its lost honour and self-respect within the party.
"These reports of a bargain going on for a number of positions in the cabinet, boards and corporation are absolutely false. Sachin Pilot and all of us have been striving to seek honour and self-respect for the grassroots Congress workers in Rajasthan," the former Rajasthan assembly speaker said.
The rumblings in the ruling party in Rajasthan have recently grown louder with calls to address the issues that the Pilot camp raised one year ago. Congress members loyal to Sachin Pilot insist that the leaders and workers in Rajasthan who gave their "sweat and blood to revive the party after it suffered its worst-ever defeat in 2013" are not getting adequate recognition and respect now that the party is in power.
(With inputs from agencies)
