Gehlot calls Pilot traitor, plunges Congress into another full-blown crisis

Fewer than 10 days before Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra enters Rajasthan via Madhya Pradesh, Ashok Gehlot has plunged his party into a full-blown crisis. In an interview with news channel NDTV, the Rajasthan Chief Minister made it abundantly clear that his intra-party arch-rival Sachin Pilot will not be acceptable to him or any of the Congress MLAs loyal to him as the state’s new CM.

Gehlot also reiterated his earlier allegation of Pilot working in cahoots with the BJP back in July-August 2018 to topple the Congress government in Rajasthan. The 71-year-old Congress warhorse also blamed Pilot for creating the situation that forced over 90 Congress MLAs to protest against the then party chief Sonia Gandhi’s presumed bid to effect a leadership change in Rajasthan this September.

Also read | Bharat Jodo Yatra: Priyanka, Robert Vadra, Pilot join Rahul in Madhya Pradesh

“He (Pilot) cannot be made CM, nobody will accept him. I will not accept him,” Gehlot told the news channel, while asserting that Pilot holds the notorious distinction of being the only state Congress chief in the history of the 137-year-old party to have been “sacked because of his attempt to topple his own party’s government”.

Gehlot’s explosive comments against his bête noir, who he repeatedly called ‘gaddar’ (traitor) during the interview, came when Pilot was walking with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Madhya Pradesh.

What does it mean for the party?

These statements only make the latest round of brinkmanship between the two Rajasthan leaders all the more embarrassing for the Congress leadership, as his statement will also imply that Rahul and Priyanka, on their quest for unity in the country and revival of the party, are not only emboldening a “traitor” to the Congress but also one who is “working with the BJP” to destabilise a Congress government.

Also read: Gehlot-Pilot turf war returns to haunt Congress; Kharge has his task cut out

Gehlot’s outburst also reflects poor political judgment on the part of the recently elected Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge who, over the past month, has refused to settle the leadership question in Rajasthan despite Pilot and Gehlot taking public potshots against each other.

In his interview, Gehlot showed why he is among the few remaining wily politicians within the Congress who the party leadership can only ill-afford to slight. Not only did he rule out the possibility of any rapprochement with Pilot, Gehlot also placed the entire responsibility of the rebellion by his loyalists, against Sonia’s attempted bid to bench him as the CM in September, on his former deputy CM.

“If he (Pilot) had not rebelled then, they (the over 90 MLAs who refused to attend a Congress Legislative Party meet in Jaipur in September) would not have rebelled,” Gehlot said. He alleged that the MLAs loyal to him had boycotted the CLP meeting called by Kharge and Ajay Maken (sent by Sonia as central observers) “out of anger” because “Pilot had started telling people before the CLP meet that the leadership had told him he will be named the new CM”.

Also read: Goodwill only for Rahul; Congress needs to build on it: Tushar Gandhi

Responding to Gehlot’s statements, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said: “Gehlot is a senior and experienced political leader. Whatever differences he has expressed with his younger colleague Shri Sachin Pilot will be resolved in a manner that strengthens the Congress party. Right now it is the duty of each and every Congressman and Congresswoman to make the already hugely succesful Bharat Jodo Yatra even more impactful in the North Indian states.”

New challenges for Congress

For the Congress party, this new twist in the ongoing Gehlot-Pilot saga is bound to create new challenges not just within Rajasthan but also beyond it.

Party sources told The Federal that one of the key reasons that prevented Kharge from putting a swift end to the suspense over who the party wants as Rajasthan CM – something Pilot had been publicly demanding for a month now – was Gehlot’s current responsibility as the party’s observer for the ongoing Gujarat Assembly polls, in which the Congress has been struggling to fight not just the BJP but also an expansionist Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that is trying to usurp the Grand Old Party’s political ground.

Also read: ‘Must follow discipline’: Gehlot responds to Pilot’s barbs

“The Congress president had decided to act on the Rajasthan situation only after the Gujarat polls are over, as any decision to replace Gehlot earlier would have created new problems not only in Rajasthan, where polls are due next year, but also in Gujarat where we are currently fighting for survival. The campaign for Gujarat is being overseen by Gehlot; a majority of the district-wise election observers in the state have been appointed by him and he is directly coordinating other important aspects of the campaign such as funding, outreach and publicity. He also knows that the party won’t act against him right now and possibly he decided to leverage the situation,” a senior Congress leader told The Federal.

What Pilot camp thinks

Those close to Pilot claim Gehlot’s statements are meant to provoke his rival into taking the “drastic step of quitting the party out of frustration of being humiliated and sidelined”. Over the past few days, MLAs and party leaders in the state who are loyal to Pilot have renewed their demand of appointing the Tonk MLA as the Rajasthan CM without further delay.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra is scheduled to enter Rajasthan’s Jhalawar on December 4. While Pilot has been asserting that the yatra’s Rajasthan leg will be successful and that the party leaders from the state will welcome the padayatra (foot-march) “with unity” despite attempts by the BJP to “create disturbances”, prominent leaders from the Gujjar community to which Pilot belongs have threatened to oppose Rahul’s entry into the state.

Also read: Bharat Jodo Yatra enters MP, first Hindi-belt state on Rahul’s route

Also, the Gurjar Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti leader Vijay Singh Bainsla, known to enjoy Pilot’s confidence, had threatened to oppose the BJY in Rajasthan unless the Congress accepted the Gujjar community’s demand of making Pilot the CM is accepted.

Party sources said both Rahul and Priyanka want Gehlot to make way for Pilot. When Pilot had led his failed coup against Gehlot in July-August 2020, Priyanka had reportedly assured him that he will be named CM a year before the state goes to polls. That deadline is fast approaching as the Assembly polls in Rajasthan are due in November-December 2023. What Priyanka did not factor in though while giving this assurance was the extent of acrimony between Gehlot and Pilot and the former’s clout over the party’s legislative bloc in Rajasthan.

Also read: Gehlot vs Pilot: Sonia may leave it to new Cong prez to solve Rajasthan crisis

Gehlot, meanwhile, is hoping that his strident opposition will prevent his arch rival’s ascension to the chief ministerial chair. He has repeatedly told Sonia that he was willing to step down as CM if she wants but the offer is conditional.

During the interview with the news channel, Gehlot admitted as much by conceding that he had told Sonia that he’ll voluntarily withdraw as CM if internal surveys conducted by the party and by him show that the Congress will not win next year’s Assembly polls with him at the helm. However, this condition by Gehlot too comes with an addendum – he won’t step down in Pilot’s favour and the party, if it must, should name the new CM from among the 90-odd MLAs who had stood firmly behind him and saved the state government from toppling when Pilot staged his failed rebellion two years back.

Responding to Gehlot’s tirade, Pilot said, “These are lies, baseless allegations. There was no need for it.”

However, sources close to Pilot told The Federal that his patience with the party is fast running out.

It’s over to Pilot now. Will Gehlot’s machinations ground Pilot or force him to take flight in search of greener pastures? Either way, the Congress’s desert storm is likely to get more intense as Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra approaches Rajasthan.