Tonk, Rajasthan: Countering the view that he rebelled against the Congress in 2020 in an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot-led government, ex-deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot has suggested that the actual “rebellion” happened last September. The former Rajasthan Congress president also indicated that the question of the CM’s position is wide open.
Pilot was referring to a time last September when 90 MLAs loyal to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot — with whom Pilot has an ongoing feud — stayed away from a Congress legislative party meeting convened by the party’s high command to name the next chief minister of Rajasthan. It came two years after Pilot led a month-long “rebellion” against Gehlot that caused the Congress to strip him of his posts as deputy CM and state party chief.
Significantly, the major bone of contention between Gehlot and Pilot has reportedly been the chief ministerial position.
“What I did was rebellion or what happened on 25 September (last year) was a rebellion? Who defines it? Were any of us given notices by the AICC for doing what we did?” Pilot asked, speaking with ThePrint while touring his assembly constituency, Tonk, over a fortnight before Rajasthan votes for its 200-seat assembly.
Pilot said that his move in 2020 was spurred by long-standing issues in the government.
“I’d been raising issues. For two years, we didn’t have a single Dalit minister in our cabinet. Now, we have four Dalit ministers. A lot of our workers were not given any position in government. Now, scores of people have been given chairmanship, corporationships, and (made) heads of other organisations,” he said, adding that on the other hand, “what happened last year… people were given disciplinary notices”.
On the question of who would be the state’s CM if the Congress retains power in the state, Pilot said it was up to the party’s high command and its elected MLAs to decide.
Gehlot has indicated his unwillingness to give up the position. “I am prepared to leave the chair but the chair is not leaving me and it will not leave me,” the CM reportedly said at a press conference on 19 October.
However, according to Pilot, no one stakes claim to the CM position. “You’re given responsibilities which you accept very humbly… It’s not about what assurance I got (from the high command). It’s about the assurance I’ve given. I’ve assured Kharge ji, Rahul ji that we will deliver Rajasthan for you. We’ll work in MP and Chhattisgarh. So it’s not about occupying a chair or a chair leaving me or not leaving me. It is about us working together to form the government,” Pilot told ThePrint.
It’s the party as a whole that wins elections, Rajasthan’s former deputy CM said.
“Today we are fighting to get a majority and once we secure a mandate, MLAs will sit down and pass a resolution. Like last time, they’ll authorise the leadership in Delhi to decide who will take what position…It’s never a given who will do what,” he said, adding that the state’s “revolving door” politics — that is, electing a BJP government one time and Congress the next — will be broken these elections with a Congress majority.
‘1-2 communities cannot make you win or lose an election’
Pilot is one of Congress’s most prominent Gurjar leaders. Overall, the Gurjars constitute around 7 percent of Rajasthan’s voters, holding sway in 40 assembly constituencies. In 2018, Congress won 100 seats and emerged as the single-largest party in Rajasthan — a victory that political observers then attributed to Pilot successfully turning the Gurjar votes in favour of the Congress.
Since then, however, the caste group, which believed Pilot would be made chief minister, is reportedly disappointed and upset with the Congress. But Pilot sees this as “over-emphasising the caste calculus”.
“Rajasthan has eight crore people. Every community, every religion is here. The Congress is a national party that takes everyone together… I don’t think one community or two communities can make you win or lose an election. In 2013, we were reduced to 21 seats out of 200. To come to a 100 from 21 was a Herculean effort,” Pilot said.
The Congress, he added, is working as a united front. “We are working together and no matter what propaganda the BJP may try and float, people are looking at performance and comparing the BJP national government’s performance. There are dissensions within the rank and file of the BJP and then there’s the united approach that the Congress party has adopted. Those are very defining reasons why people will choose the Congress as opposed to the BJP.”
Earlier this year, Pilot had staged a protest against the Gehlot government demanding three things — a stringent law on paper leaks, the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) to be disbanded and reconstituted, and a thorough investigation of corruption charges against the previous Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government.
In July, the Rajasthan assembly passed the Rajasthan Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) (Amendment) Act, 2023 — which enhances the punishment for those involved in government recruitment exam paper leaks from 10 years jail term to life imprisonment.
According to the leader, Pilot all three of his demands have largely been met.
“I raised issues because I think it is important for the party to be connected to issues that matter to the people. It’s the parties that make a government. Governments don’t make parties. We had made some promises when I was in opposition and I think issues of paper leak etc. really resonate with the people of Rajasthan,” he said.
The leadership of Delhi took cognizance of his demand for a law on paper leaks and directed the government of Rajasthan to enact a law in which people caught in paper leaks, Pilot said. “Now the punishment has been enhanced up to life imprisonment. This is the only state in India to do that,” the former deputy CM said.
Of his two other demands, Pilot said reforms in the RPSC couldn’t be implemented because of the “lack of time” since the elections were called. But “some moves in the judicial space” were also made about the corruption charges against the Raje government, he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)