Congress weighs options to put up united front ahead of Rajasthan polls

The Congress might offer former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot a larger role in the upcoming assembly elections campaign and even make him the head of the panel that will oversee the party’s efforts to retain power in the desert state as part of efforts to project unity, people aware of developments said on Thursday.

Read here: Reconciliation with Sachin Pilot is permanent, says Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot

The Congress maintained that 90% of Pilot’s issues were resolved even as his camp said that a week after his meeting with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi and chief minister Ashok Gehlot, nothing has happened.

“In the meeting (with Kharge and Gandhi), 90% of the issues were resolved, and the remaining 10% have no such issue. Everyone agreed, and that’s why they together came outside with Venugopal, and announced in front of the media there itself,” said Congress’s Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa in Jaipur on Tuesday.

He was referring to a late-night press conference on May 29 when party general secretary KC Venugopal announced that the two leaders had decided to fight the upcoming polls together. But tensions have continued to simmer.

Senior Congress leaders maintained that Pilot has been asked to lead the campaign panel for the upcoming elections. But the party is in no mood to project him as the CM face in the election, especially when Gehlot is in charge of the government.

Gehlot’s various welfare schemes -- including capping the cooking gas price -- have found appreciation from the party leadership. In the Delhi meeting, according to a senior leader, Gandhi had called Pilot a “good friend” and urged him to work together.

A functionary close to Pilot, however, maintained that demands raised by him around fighting corruption were “core issues”. The functionary admitted that Gandhi urged Pilot to work together, remained mum on the Congress’s offer of a larger role in upcoming elections, and said there was “growing frustration” over the way the former deputy CM was treated by lawmakers close to Gehlot.

Differences between three-time CM Gehlot and Pilot spilled out into the open in 2020 when the latter rebelled against the government, plunging the Congress administration into crisis. Then last year, lawmakers close to Gehlot did not attend a Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting in Jaipur called to elect a new leader at a time when it seemed almost certain that Gehlot would become the Congress president and Pilot succeed him as chief minister.

Read here: 'Stay, join BJP or go solo?' Sachin Pilot's future has Rajasthan Congress at attention

With just months to go for the assembly polls, the Congress leadership met Gehlot and Pilot separately on May 29 before calling both leaders for a meeting. After the meeting, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal stated, “Gehlot and Pilot – both are in agreement that the Congress party has to go together and fight the elections unitedly”.