With just three days to go for Congress leader Sachin Pilot’s mega rally scheduled to be held in Dausa on June 11, his father Rajesh Pilot’s death anniversary, there is no clarity yet on the popular leader’s future course of action. There is speculation that Pilot may go ahead and announce his departure from the Congress at the rally and float his new party just months ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.
Pilot has been on a warpath against his own party leadership in the state, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in particular, demanding that the government probe the cases of corruption in the erstwhile Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government, reconstitute the Rajasthan Public Service Commission and make fresh appointments, and compensate those affected by the cancellation of government recruitment exams due to multiple paper leaks.
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A truce brokered by the Congress last month between the two warring leaders appears to have been short-lived with the Gehlot government taking no visible measures on the issues raised by Pilot. To add to that, the Congress’s central leadership, which tried to put up a united show and claimed that both leaders have resolved to contest the Rajasthan elections together, does not seem keen to accommodate Pilot’s demands either.
“The party is supreme,” remarked Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh after Pilot remarked that he would continue to pressure the government over his demands for a probe into corruption cases. The assertion made it clear that Congress was unwilling to make any concessions as far as Pilot was concerned.
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For the unversed, the Congress central leadership, in accordance with the power-sharing formula devised in 2018, had tried to install Pilot as the Rajasthan CM but failed. Gehlot dug in his heels and MLAs loyal to him did not allow a legislature party meeting, apparently meant to announce the change of guard, to convene.
That realistically leaves Pilot, a leader who has been keen on a larger role in the state’s politics, with little choice. He has taken his opposition against the Gehlot government too far to back down now. With Gehlot unwilling to cede space, making his return as RPCC president unlikely ahead of polls, Pilot isn’t really spoilt for choice if he wishes to remain relevant.
The Congress too appears to have reconciled with the damage that any “drastic move” by Pilot could inflict upon the party. A Gujjar leader, Pilot is believed to hold significant sway in as many as 30-40 seats in the eastern belt of the state which is largely dominated by Meena and Gujjar votes. The Gujjars and Meenas, who collectively constitute 13 per cent of the vote bank, have traditionally been BJP supporters but voted for Congress as a mark of support to Pilot.
It is precisely for this influence that Pilot wields in the complicated caste matrix of Rajasthan that Congress wanted to reconcile differences in the state unit ahead of the polls scheduled for later this year. There were earlier murmurs that the Congress was contemplating the idea of going into elections without a chief ministerial face, just like it did in Karnataka.
However, with little or no letdown by either Pilot or Gehlot, things remain complicated as ever for Congress. The June 11 rally, thus, could act as a significant marker of a change in the state months ahead of the crucial elections.
The path Pilot takes could potentially determine the outcome of the elections.