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‘Gehlot and Pilot have agreed to go together’: Cong's unity pitch ahead of Rajasthan poll
Sachin Pilot has recently cornered Ashok Gehlot over the issue of corruption and paper leaks, staging a daylong dharna and undertaking a march.
Have warring Rajasthan Congress leaders Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot buried the hatchet for the assembly election scheduled at the end of this year? Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Monday announced both the leaders have agreed to go together.
Addressing the media after both Gehlot and Pilot met Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, Venugopal said, "We have decided that both leaders (Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot) have agreed to go together. It will be a joint fight against BJP, we will win the state (Rajasthan)".
“We have decided to fight elections unitedly. Definitely, we will win the elections in Rajasthan. Both Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot have unanimously agreed with the proposal”, he added.
The high-level meet is being seen as the Congress high command's attempt to bring truce between the two warring leaders as the party gears up to defend its fortress in the desert state.
Pilot, who staged an unsuccessful coup against Gehlot in 2020, has recently cornered the Rajasthan chief minister on the issue of corruption. After staging a daylong dharna over his demand for the probe into alleged corruption by previous BJP regime under Vasundhara Raje, Pilot undertook a 125 kilometre-long ‘Jan Sangharsh Yatra’ march from Ajmer to Jaipur.
Besides corruption, Pilot has been quite vocal against his own government over the increasing incidents of exam paper leaks in Rajasthan.
ALSO READ: Sachin Pilot to quit Congress? Gehlot's former deputy says ‘no need to speculate…it's all before you’
The showdown between Gehlot and Pilot dates back to 2018 after the Congress had won the Rajasthan election. The party top brass had picked the veteran as chief minister while Pilot was named deputy chief minister and PCC chief. However, the feud came out in the open in 2020 when MLAs loyal to Pilot staged a dharna outside Raj Bhavan. Pilot was brought back into the party fold after intervention by Gandhis.
But the war of words continued between the two leaders with Gehlot even labelling his adversary Pilot as a ‘gaddar’ (traitor) last year. “A gaddar (traitor) cannot be chief minister... the Congress high command cannot make Sachin Pilot the chief minister... a man who doesn't have 10 MLAs. Who revolted. He betrayed the party, (he) is a traitor", the veteran Congressman had said last year.
