Rajasthan: Cong's Pilot Announces Protest Against Party's Gehlot-led Govt Over Inaction on 'Corruption'

In what looks like a fresh storm brewing in Rajasthan Congress, party leader and former deputy CM Sachin Pilot on Sunday announced he will sit on hunger strike against the Ashok Gehlot-led government in the state from April 11, demanding an investigation against scams in the previous Vasundhara Raje government.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Congress leader Sachin Pilot said he appealed to CM Gehlot to act on the allegations against the previous Vasundhara Raje government but got no response.

Pilot said he and Gehlot levelled those allegations against the government of Vasundhara Raje together, adding that he 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.

“On April 11, I will do a one-day hunger strike to mark my words that action should be taken against corruption in the state so that the public does not feel that we are not doing any work or we have not fulfilled any of our promises,” Rajasthan Congress MLA and former deputy CM Sachin Pilot added.

The feud between Congress leaders Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot is well known and saw an ugly phase when CM Gehlot accused Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Pilot of conniving to topple his government in 2020.

Since then, Rajasthan Congress has seen several bouts of the never-ending Pilot vs Gehlot tussle.

Reacting to Sachin Pilot’s announcement, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla took jibe at Congress and wrote on Twitter, “Bharat is already united but Congress is Tukde Tukde – Tooti Footi.”

The cracks in Rajasthan Congress due to the tussle between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot were visible in January this year also when Sachin Pilot made a statement that the party returned to power in the state in 2018 under his leadership as the state president. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had responded saying that the reason for the party’s win was the work done by his previous government.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to show unity in the party in the state where polls are slated to take place later this year, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot last month dismissed the talks of having differences with Sachin Pilot while adding that “small differences” keep happening in Congress like “all parties”.

Gehlot had said that the leaders in Congress contest and win the elections together and will do so in the upcoming polls as well. Assembly elections in Rajasthan are scheduled to take place later this year.

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