Gehlot's remarks serve no response in Congress' fight against BJP: Pilot

Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Thursday sought to hit back at his archrival and state Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for calling him a “traitor”, saying such name-calling served little purpose for Congress’s fight against BJP.

Pilot said Gehlot has been calling him ”nikamma, naakara, gaddar and so on” but it was not part of his upbringing to use such language.

The former Rajasthan deputy chief minister told PTI that the ”name-calling, mud-slinging and accusations that are going around are serving little purpose”, adding that the priority should be to fight unitedly to defeat the BJP as well as strengthen Rahul Gandhi’s hand.

Rahul Gandhi is leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra which is set to enter Rajasthan in a few days.

Just ahead of this, Gehlot attacked Pilot calling him a ”gaddar” (traitor) and said he can never be made the chief minister of the state.

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

”I have seen Ashok Gehlot ji’s statements today aimed against me. Someone who is so experienced, senior and whom party has given so much, it is unbecoming of someone with such experience to use this language, make such completely false and baseless allegations,” Pilot told PTI.

”It serves no purpose when we have to fight BJP unitedly,” the former Union minister said.

”It is time for us to work together to defeat the BJP because only the Congress can defeat the BJP. I think this name-calling, mud-slinging and accusations that are going around are serving little purpose,” he said as he walked alongside Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday.

Gehlot and Pilot have been at loggerheads over chief ministership ever since the Congress won the Rajasthan polls in 2018.

In an interview, Gehlot alleged that Union Home Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah was involved in Pilot’s rebellion, when some Congress MLAs loyal to him were holed up in a Gurugram resort for more than a month and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited them often, claiming that he has proof that an amount of Rs 10 crore was paid to each of those legislators, including Pilot.