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As Sachin Pilot camps in Delhi, his loyalists continue attack on Gehlot
Demanding a cabinet expansion as well as other political appointments, the Sachin Pilot faction of Rajasthan legislators on Sunday continued to attack the Ashok Gehlot government even as Pilot camped in Delhi waiting for an audience with senior party leaders
Demanding a cabinet expansion as well as other political appointments, the Sachin Pilot faction of Rajasthan legislators on Sunday continued to attack the Ashok Gehlot government even as Pilot camped in Delhi waiting for an audience with senior party leaders.
Pilot, the former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan, was unable to meet Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Delhi. When contacted, Vadra’s office said there was no meeting slotted with Pilot as she is out of town. Pilot, too, said no meeting was scheduled with her.
However, Pilot’s weekend trip to Delhi has triggered speculation about behind-the-scenes discussions on a planned Rajasthan cabinet reshuffle. A senior party leader said on condition of anonymity that a formula was being worked out for cabinet expansion to ensure fairness in the entire process. “We would like to have those who have had more than one term as MLA as ministers. Other options are also being discussed,” the leader said.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot can induct nine ministers to the cabinet that can have 30 members at the most. A second leader, again requesting anonymity, confirmed that talks are on, and matters will be resolved soon.
But on Sunday, five-time member of the legislative assembly and former Rajasthan speaker Deepender Singh Shekhawat said the panel formed by All India Congress Committee to resolve the issues raised by Pilot 10 months ago has done nothing. “Those who helped the party form the government in Rajasthan aren’t being respected,” Shekhawat said.
So far mum on the unfolding events, Shekhawat finally broke his silence and said a swift decision to ameliorate the pain of the agitating MLAs will be in the interest of the party.
Shekhawat’s comments came a day after Congress MLA from Chaksu, Ved Prakash Solanki, a vocal supporter of Pilot, alleged that some MLAs told him about their phones being tapped. He, however, declined to name the MLAs. Party chief whip Mahesh Joshi dismissed Solanki’s charges as baseless.
But BJP state president Satish Poonia attacked the Gehlot government and claimed that if phones were being illegally tapped in a democracy, then the chief minister and the home minister have to answer for it in the people’s court one day.
This isn’t the first time that phone-tapping charges have been levelled against the Gehlot government. Last July, when Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs loyal to him had rebelled against Gehlot, one of the accusations they had levelled against his government was of illegal phone tapping.
The charge got legitimacy when an audio clip of an alleged phone conversation between a Union minister and two Congress MLAs was shared by Gehlot’s officer on special duty Lokesh Sharma.
On the current crisis, another senior Congress leader familiar with the developments said the party’s national leadership will take up the Rajasthan issue in a day or two after resolving the crisis in Punjab where infighting has created problems for the Amarinder Singh government.
