HT interview | ‘Wanted to be Congress chief; it’s a 100 times better job’: Ashok Gehlot

Gehlot said he is confident of repeating his 1998 feat of winning 153 seats in the 200-member Rajasthan assembly

One of the most keenly watched electoral fights this year is in Rajasthan, where chief minister Ashok Gehlot is hoping to break a decades-old trend of the incumbent being voted out. With schemes announcing free power, cellphones and cashless insurance up to ₹25 lakh, Gehlot, 73, has forced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to follow his agenda. Speaking to HT’s Sunetra Choudhury and Sachin Saini, Gehlot says he is confident of repeating his 1998 feat of winning 153 seats in the 200-member assembly, and also seemed to suggest that his long-running feud with Sachin Pilot is over. Edited excerpts

Rajasthan chief minsiter Ashok Gehlot (HT Photo)

You are often referred to as a jaadugar or magician by political observers. Are you hoping to do some magic in these elections?

I am not doing any magic, our party will benefit from the governance and the work that has been done and I hope that the public’s mood will be to repeat the government. Over the last five years, we have launched so many schemes and that is the reason I think the public will be with us this election.

But Rajasthan has always had a revolving door system.

That (revolving door system) will break this time; the work of our government has reached every village and home. There is the water scheme, roads have reached the farthest villages, the education system has been bolstered and now villages have English schools. Villagers have acknowledged the importance of English education; 3 lakh students are studying in English schools and this is an example of how people have responded to our schemes.

Your law protecting gig workers is garnering praise from activists; whose idea was this?

During Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, he held regular interactions with people; some activists explained these issues then. Gandhi decided that a law should be made on this.

The BJP is claiming these schemes are being launched with an eye on the elections.

This is a misconception.

In previous elections, your rival was clear. Who is your challenger this time around?

Just looking for one (laughs). It’s a big problem for us. We can’t properly attack them (without a rival CM candidate; the BJP usually doesn’t name one in states where it is not in power). We will have to just change our approach. But I think this time the public is in a mood to give a verdict our way. As I said recently, 156 is what I’m seeing. In 1998, when Sonia Gandhi was the party president, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was our rival and they came down to 32. I think the same situation is arising again.

Your tweet in support of Sachin Pilot’s father Rajesh Pilot took everyone by surprise recently

Rajesh Pilot and I both went to Parliament together , we started out there together. I had never heard that he had gone to Mizoram to carry out an attack there. Sachin Pilot said that his father had started working in 1968 and so what the BJP was alleging about his father (that he had been part of India’s bombing of the state in 1966), was factually incorrect. I tweeted because a soldier is just that, a soldier and it’s our responsibility to respect him. There was no politics in it but I guess the media saw it differently.

But you have to admit that you don’t get along with his son Sachin Pilot?

When Sachin Pilot became a central minister, I supported him. At the time, we had got 20 out of the 25 seats (in the Lok Sabha in the state). When I was asked to give my recommendation (for cabinet), I took his name. That’s because Gujjars (from Pilot’s community) had been killed in firing during the Vasundhara Raje government and it was my responsibility to speak in favour of my state in Delhi. There was a lot of tension here between the Gujjar and the Meena community and to douse that fire, I took Pilot’s name. Pilot called me for it, and I said that I had already recommended him. I do politics in the public interest. I don’t have the word enmity in my dictionary.

If you become the CM again, would you again make Pilot a minister?

Who am I to make him a minister? The high command makes people ministers and CMs too. That’s the discipline of our party and that’s what will happen in the future too. Whoever they decide will become the CM, according to public mood and (based on) discussions.

What are the lessons your party has learnt from its win in Karnataka?

The first lesson is that of unity (Karnataka too had two claimants from the Congress for the top post), so that is very clear. Number two, corruption is a major issue and that’s what BJP is really trying to take up here (against us), but if there’s zero tolerance for corruption anywhere in the country, it is here.

Do you support the caste census?

Congress’s stance in court is that there should be a caste census. What I would like to ask of the Prime Minister is that the findings of the 2011 caste census should be made public. Secondly, the 2021 census that was supposed to happen should be held soon and the question of caste should definitely be there. That data will make it very clear, what kind of upliftment each group needs. I don’t know why they don’t want to do this. When they were in the opposition, they used to demand it but now in government, they should do it. Modiji as CM used to ask for an MSP law (a legislation that guarantees a minimum guaranteed price for procurement of food crops), why doesn’t he do it after being PM for nine years?

Finally, do you regret not taking up the Congress offer of becoming the party president?

I was all for it. It’s such a prestigious post, who wouldn’t want to be Congress President? It’s just that circumstances turned out in such a way, that I couldn’t become. It’s a wrong perception that I wanted to stay CM and didn’t want to become party chief or turn it down. It’s totally wrong. Mrs Sonia Gandhi knows the truth as I briefed her. I don’t want to get into it as we should all be fighting together now for the elections. I did, however, want to be party president and it is a 100 times bigger position than that of the chief minister. I do feel it till today that I could have been party president.

So, is it an option for the future?

Who has seen the future?