Sachin Pilot’s Open Challenge To Congress Leadership Amid Rahul’s Wayanad Visit After Disqualification

Jaipur: Defying Congress’ central leadership’s dictat, senior leader of the party Sachin Pilot staged a fast (dharna) on Tuesday at Shaheed Smarak Sthal here with Mahatma Gandhi as the backdrop to press for action against corruption under the Vasundhara Raje regime.

Pilot decided to go ahead with it despite being warned by his senior last night that his move would be seen as an “anti-party activity”. He has accused the government led by his own party of having failed to investigate cases of alleged corruption during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule in Rajasthan. He is sitting on a “maun vrat” and will not speak against the government, reports said.

The development has again brought into open the power tussle between the Pilot and the Gehlot factions in the Congress, which unseated the Raje government in 2018. It also coincides with Rahul Gandhi’s first public function address in Kerala’s Wayanad after his conviction in a defamation case and subsequent disqualification from Lok Sabha. Rahul and Pilot chose the birth anniversary of social reformer Jyotirao Bhule for their programmes. This clearly indicates that Pilot has run out of patience with only six months to go for the polls.

Congress-led Rajasthan government has declared the birth anniversary of the social reformer as a public holiday.

In July 2020, the party had witnessed a one-month-long political crisis after  Pilot and a section of party MLAs rebelled openly, demanding a leadership change in the state.