Rajasthan Congress president insists party’s state unit is united, says even PM can’t save the state’s BJP government.
New Delhi: Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot harbours no thoughts of being the party’s chief ministerial candidate at the moment and says that, like the other leaders, he just wants the party to win.
“When I was 26 years old, I was elected as an MP; I was a minister at the age of 31. At 35, I became the state party president. The Congress has given me enough opportunity to rise and work hard for the people of Rajasthan and the party,” Pilot tells ThePrint in an exclusive interaction.
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“As a Congressman, I will always follow the orders of the party president. Frankly, no one, including me, is thinking about who would be the CM candidate,” he says.
Pilot’s statement comes at a time of internal strife in the Congress over who will be the party’s chief ministerial face in Rajasthan, which goes to polls at the end of the year.
Last week, when Pilot was out of the country, senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot appeared to suggest that there was no need for a chief ministerial candidate other than him. He said that since he had been the chief minister for 10 years, the party already had a CM face.
Elsewhere, loyalists of another senior Congress leader, C.P. Joshi, demanded that he be the party’s chief ministerial candidate during a meeting of party workers in Jaipur.
Pilot, however, denies that such statements have been made.
“The senior leaders clarified later that there is no such thing,” he says. “We all are together and working as a team. Our priority is to defeat the BJP in the state. Had we not been together, we wouldn’t have won the by-elections so convincingly.”
To address the internal wrangling, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on 6 August held a meeting with all the senior leaders of the state in Delhi and strictly told them not to make any statement regarding the chief minister post.
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Rahul to take a call on allies
On the question of alliances in the state, Pilot says he had already conveyed his opinion to the party president.
“The party has authorised Rahulji to take a call on alliance and we all would follow whatever he says. The call on whether we should or shouldn’t go for an alliance will be taken by Rahulji himself.”
He also alleges that Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s Gaurav Yatra, flagged off by BJP president Amit Shah on 4 August, was named after the Congress’ Mera Booth Mera Gaurav.
“We have already connected 2 lakh booths across the state through the event and are observing its success. Vasundharaji has just ventured on a Yatra,” says Pilot. “In fact, she should have named it Jawabdeh Yatra, and answered the people of Rajasthan. It is a yatra being carried out on taxpayer’s money.”
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He also says the yatra will do little to do help the BJP in elections slated for the end of the year.
“The BJP government is an epitome of corruption. The chief minister issued a gag order against the media, the state is recording the highest number of atrocities against women, Dalits and minorities. People are just waiting to change this government,” says Pilot.
The state Congress president also says the Modi factor will not rescue the BJP government. The Modi factor helps the BJP score in the last rounds of election campaigns and the party may adopt a similar strategy in Rajasthan.
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“No matter how many rallies both PM Modi and (BJP president) Amit Shah address in the state, they will not be able to defend the Vasundhara Raje government. Defending a government hated by the people of the state is going to be difficult this time,” says Pilot.
The Congress President should certainly be thinking of who will be the party’s CM candidate. Yesterday’s election for the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman’s post shows how the party is still not able to get its act together. Rajasthan is a ripe fruit, ready for the plucking. Ashok Gehlot has lost twice to Ms Raje, hit out of the park the last time. He should make way gracefully for Sachin Pilot, who has been doing good work in reviving the party’s state unit.