Sachin Pilot announces fast against his govt, CM Gehlot on corruption issue

Fresh troubles are brewing in Rajasthan ahead of the election as once again the rift between chief minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot comes to the surface. In a press conference on Sunday, Sachin Pilot announced a one-day hunger strike on April 11 against his own government. Pilot said he appealed to Gehlot to act on the allegations against the previous Vasundhara Raje government but got no reply. "We levelled those allegations against the government of Vasundhara ji together. I too levelled some charges as the then president of the state unit of the party. I do not believe in revenge politics. But we had some credibility as the opposition and that's why we came to the power," Sachin Pilot said. Read | Why no action against Raje govt for graft: Sachin Pilot’s fresh salvo at Ashok Gehlot

"I think we should walk the talk and I wrote to Gehlot ji almost 1.5 years ago that it is time to probe the allegations that we levelled against the BJP government. The Congress should show to the people that there is no gap between our words and action," Pilot said.

Read | 'Sachin Pilot a Gaddar… ₹10 crore was distributed': Ashok Gehlot

"I wrote the first letter on March 28, 2022. Got no reply. Then I wrote again on November 2, 2022. I wrote that the public believed us and moved us from 21 seats to 100 seats," Pilot said adding that he wanted to take some action on these corruption charges ahead of the state election.

While the Centre is misusing the ED, CBI to target the Congress leadership, the Rajasthan government is not even using its agencies, Pilot said adding that he wants this to come to the public domain. "Public and the Congress leaders should not think that there is a difference between our kathni and karni," Pilot said.

The clash between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot has troubled the Congress in past while the leadership papered over the differences and tried to bring both of them on the same page sending the message that both Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot are important to the party.

This is not the first time that Pilot raised the issue of the inaction of his government to probe the alleged corruption of the previous BJP government. In January this year, he raised the issue when he questioned the government over repeated incidents of paper leaks.

Congress is tooti, footi: BJP's salvo

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalls commented that Gehlot and Pilot are additions to the long list of DK and Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dikshit (Delhi), Navjot Sidhu and Raja Warring (Punjab). "

“Bharat is already united but Congress is Tukde Tukde - Tooti Footi. Congress se janta jodo. Congress ko congress se jodo. Baki sab chodo," Shehzad added.