Sachin Pilot sacking: How Congress cooked the Rajasthan storm

By Vandana

The rift between Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot is older though. It dates back to Pilot’s appointment as Rajasthan chief in 2014 following the party’s defeat in the 2013 assembly elections. Congress then disengaged the two by bringing Gehlot to Delhi as Congress general secretary.

In 2018, Rajasthan had managed to take over the reins of power from Vasundhara Raje-led BJP. But Sachin Pilot, who was still Rajasthan Congress chief, tried that Gehlot should not contest the assembly elections. The reason was Pilot, being the state president himself, couldn’t as per party tradition. When Pilot couldn’t stop Gehlot from contesting, he had little choice but to contest himself. He dithered till the last minute because he was fearful of a loss. Eventually, he won, but it is said that Rahul Gandhi himself had to direct Gehlot to ensure Pilot shouldn’t lose.

In 2014, under Pilot’s presidentship, the Congress lost all 25 Lok Sabha seats. Pilot lost in Ajmer by a margin of 1,71,983 votes to BJP’s sitting MLA Sanwarlal Jattoo. In 2019, the party repeated its 2014 performance drawing a blank once again despite being in-charge of the state government. All this under Pilot’s watch.

Today, as the party grounded Pilot, sacking him from the post of state unit chief and Deputy Chief Minister, it knew well he had no firm footing on the ground. Remember, despite him being the state party chief, it was Gehlot who brought the coalition together paving the way for government formation.

But why did the party try to reach out to Pilot with “we love you” notes despite his open rebellion?

The answer lies in his surname which he gets from his father Rajesh Pilot, a friend of Rajiv Gandhi. An English-speaking Pilot with impeccable manners has more clout in the Delhi press circles than perhaps back in Rajasthan. His political premium is thus a manufactured one.

The specter that his political walkout (you can it his sacking) from the Congress still is, is an ugly one for the party, coming so close on the heels of Jyotiraditya Scindia walking out of the Congress. Scindia’s walkout affected the fall of the Madhya Pradesh government, even though Scindia had himself lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He was also seen as a close confidant of Rahul Gandhi, literally rising from behind the Gandhi scion in Parliament to silence others so that Gandhi could speak.

A weakened Congress is seeing the resurgence of dissent and call for the Congress high command to exhibit some leadership. Some of it has been scathing. Case in point, Sanjay Jha’s article in an English daily saying that Congress’ extraordinary lassitude, and its lackadaisical attitude towards its own political obsolescence despite a series of electoral reverses was baffling.

Jha was removed from the position of party spokesperson. Jha would have foreseen it and yet went ahead with writing the column because clearly the Congress high command has failed to wake up and smell the coffee.

For over two months before Scindia actually went incommunicado for the party, he was in touch with the BJP leadership. This was in full knowledge of the Congress leadership but it did nothing.

State after state, the Congress has shown reluctance in fighting head on. The Bihar elections are nearing, the BJP is holding virtual rallies and reaching out to people, but the Congress it seems has already given up on the election.

Scindia is a good catch for the party (BJP) because he could help topple a government. Pilot claims he has enough MLAs – 20 to 22 – to affect the fall of the government. This could mean BJP winning a fight it never fought, simply because the high command didn’t look interested in saving the Congress family.

Image courtesy of firstindia.co.in

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