Defiant Pilot on hunger strike despite Congress criticism. Rajasthan CM Gehlot counters with ‘Mehangai Rahat Camp’

Pilot had announced the protest stating that his letters to Ashok Gehlot, asking him to look into corruption allegations against former Vasundhara Raje-led BJP govt, had gone unanswered.

Congress leader Sachin Pilot | Photo: ANI

Jaipur: Congress leader Sachin Pilot persisted with his one-day hunger strike against the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan Tuesday despite the All India Congress Committee (AICC) condemning the same.

Pilot is yet to respond to the statement by Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Randhawa in which he labelled Pilot’s protest as “anti-party activity”.

In the statement late Monday night, Randhawa said: “Shri Sachin Pilot’s one-day long fast tomorrow is against the party’s interest and is anti-party activity. If there is any issue with his own government, it can be discussed in party forums instead of in the media and public. I have been AICC in-charge for the last 5 months and Pilotji has never discussed this issue with me. I am in touch with him and I still appeal for calm dialogue since he is an indisputable asset to the Congress party.”

At the Shahid Smarak in Jaipur, the stage was set up Tuesday morning with a background that bore the picture of Mahatma Gandhi. However, Pilot isn’t calling it a protest against Gehlot. The words next to Gandhiji’s picture read: “Fast against corruption during Vasundhara government”.

Pilot had Sunday announced this protest stating that he had written two letters to Gehlot last year asking the government to look into allegations of corruption against the previous Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government. He did not receive a response. Pilot said that with months to go for the state polls, the Congress workers and the people who voted for the party should not feel that Congress has not fulfilled its main poll plank.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Gehlot responded to Pilot’s protest by announcing a ‘Mehengai Rahat Camp’.

According to sources in the Chief Minister’s team, after the AICC’s statement yesterday and the one before stating that the party will go to polls on the back of the achievements of Gehlot government, he is now focussing on playing up existing government schemes and trying to avoid directly responding to Pilot.

The Mehengai Rahat Camps are being set up in order to expand the reach of his schemes.

“There will be 3,000 such camps across the state. Anybody with a Jan Aadhaar number will be shown which schemes they are eligible for by the functionaries at the camp and they will be immediately registered for those schemes,” said a member of Gehlot’s office.

(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)