Upset Rahul snubs Gehlot, Pilot

JAIPUR: AICC chief Rahul Gandhi on Monday refused to meet Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot, who have been camping in Delhi, even as infighting between the camps in the state owing allegiance to the two Congress leaders refused to die down after the party’s humiliating rout in the Lok Sabha polls.
Sources said Rahul refused to meet Gehlot and Pilot as he is upset with the performance of Congress in Rajasthan which it had wrested from BJP in the assembly polls just six months ago. Back home, the blame game for the May 23 rout in Rajasthan continued with state minister Ramesh Meena alleging that the CM allowed the bureaucracy to run freely and ignore the common man.
Meena, a Pilot loyalist, has been attacking Gehlot after Congress’s rout in the state. “I have been to seven-eight districts and the feedback is that grievances of people and Congress workers have been ignored and the bureaucracy is dominating,” he said.
As Gehlot holds the personnel portfolio, Meena’s statement is seen as an attack on him. Congress chief whip in the state assembly, Mahesh Joshi, a Gehlot loyalist, said it was “premature” to make any comment.
Meanwhile, another Gehlot loyalist, agriculture minister Lal Chand Kataria, whose ‘resignation’ made news on social media, continued to avoid the media on Monday. He is said to be out of Rajasthan and has neither confirmed nor denied stepping down.