Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot with Sachin Pilot (Express Photo by Rohit Jain Paras)
Rajasthan Government crisis Highlights: Even as Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Wednesday made a frontal attack on Sachin Pilot, who has been removed as deputy CM and state party president, the party’s central leadership is keeping its doors open for him. Pilot reiterated again on Wednesday that he is not joining the BJP. Sources in Delhi said both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are keen to accommodate Pilot, and that Ahmed Patel was talking to him.
In his first such remarks against Pilot, without mentioning him by name, Gehlot said the former deputy CM was “involved” in the BJP’s “conspiracy” to topple his government and claimed proof of “horse-trading” by him. He also said Pilot had risen in the party ranks without the kind of work leaders of his generation had put in.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, meanwhile, said that Pilot was welcome back provided he left “the Haryana BJP government’s hospitality (MLAs backing Pilot are staying in hotels in Haryana)”. Congress sources claimed the party had learnt that Pilot had a meeting on Wednesday with a BJP leader who had played a key role in the defection of Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. A senior Congress leader also said the party is in touch with a couple of MLAs in the Pilot camp and that two-three of them could switch back.
Even as the political crisis in the state deepens, Rajasthan BJP unit is in Party leaders maintained that the BJP, as the main Opposition in Rajasthan, will take “every action to see that the Gehlot government fails to prove (its) majority” in the Assembly.
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot with Sachin Pilot (File)
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s reported remarks at an NSUI meeting on Wednesday sent the party into a tizzy. Speaking to office-bearers of the party’s students wing, Rahul is said to have observed that whosoever wants to leave the party will leave and they should not be unduly worried about it. He reportedly added that when a big leader leaves the party, it will open doors for youths like them. The Congress immediately denied he made any such remark, as it was being read in the context of speculation that Sachin Pilot could leave the party. Read the snippet from Delhi Confidential
After Ashok Gehlot's stinging remarks on Sachin Pilot, sources said, Surjewala, who is part of the central team sent by the Congress to Jaipur to handle the crisis, had a meeting with the chief minister. It was conveyed to him that Rahul Gandhi wants to keep the doors open for Pilot. Sources said Gehlot told Surjewala he was not against that but Pilot would have to “leave the BJP camp”. Sources in Delhi said both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are keen to accommodate Pilot, and that Ahmed Patel was talking to him.
Even as the Congress reiterated that the party has not closed its doors on rebel leader Sachin Pilot, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Wednesday took a jibe at his former deputy, saying that “speaking good English or being handsome is not everything”. Gehlot also accused Pilot, who was the former state Congress president, of being involved in horse-trading with the BJP to topple his government.
“Speaking good English, giving good bytes and being handsome is not everything. What do you have in your heart, what commitment do you have, this all is seen,” Gehlot said, without mentioning Pilot by his name.
On Tuesday, the Congress stripped Pilot of both his posts—as deputy chief minister and state PCC chief—three days after his showdown with CM Gehlot. The party also cracked the whip on Pilot’s loyalists: Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena were removed from the state cabinet, and the state presidents of the Youth Congress and Seva Dal were replaced. The decision was announced after Pilot and his MLAs skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet in the morning — the second in two days — at a hotel on the outskirts of Jaipur, where the Gehlot camp is keeping Congress and other supporting MLAs. The meetings concluded with CM Gehlot establishing his majority, and with a recommendation to take action against the 19 MLAs. Read full report here.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has lost both his arms in Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said on Wednesday and added that a weaker Congress is good for the BJP, news agency PTI reported.
"We all saw what had happened in Madhya Pradesh. Now, it's happening again in Rajasthan. There seems to be some fault in the functioning of the Congress leadership," Patel said.
"These two young leaders (Pilot and Scindia) were like right and left hands of Rahul Gandhi. Now, he has lost both his arms," he added.
The Congress has sought the disqualification of Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident MLAs from the state assembly even as it repeated that the party has not closed its doors on him.
Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C P Joshi confirmed that disqualification notices have been sent out Tuesday on the basis of the complaint made by the party. The dissidents have to reply by Friday.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also talked tough, accusing the former deputy chief minister of being directly involved in the alleged horse-trading with the opposition BJP to bring down his government.
The Congress on Wednesday dissolved its all-district and block committees in Rajasthan in a bid to revamp the state unit of the party, news agency PTI reported.
Announcing the decision, AICC general secretary in-charge for the Rajasthan Congress, said new committees will be formed soon.
Sources said the decision has come in the wake of Sachin Pilot's sacking as the deputy chief minister and the state Congress chief. The move is considered a step forward in removing all Pilot's men holding party positions at the grassroots level. (PTI)
The Rajasthan situation is in some ways similar to the situation that unfolded in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka recently. What does the law say, and what are the various scenarios that can unfold now?
Late on Tuesday (July 14) night, Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C P Joshi issued notices to 19 rebel Congress MLAs including Sachin Pilot on a petition seeking their disqualification by the Congress.
Pilot had been sacked as Deputy Chief Minister and chief of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee after he and his supporters failed to attend meetings of the Congress Legislature Party for two consecutive days.
The battle lines are now clearly drawn in the Rajasthan Congress. The BJP is watching and waiting for its opportunity to strike. What does the notice issued to Sachin Pilot and his supporters by the Rajasthan Speaker indicate? Read our Explainer to know.
"We saw media statements where you (Sachin Pilot) have said that you are not going to BJP. If it is so, leave the hotels of Haryana's Khattar government, stop talking to BJP members," Surjewala said during the press conference.
"Stop talking via media. Come to the party and keep things before us directly," he added.
Addressing a press conference on the ongoing crisis in Rajasthan government, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said: "We asked our young colleague Sachin Pilot and other party MLAs to keep their differences before the party and that we are ready to listen with an open mind."
"Speaking good English, giving good bytes and being handsome isn't everything. What is inside your heart for the country, your ideology, policies, and commitment, everything is considered," Gehlot said while speaking to reporters on Wednesday.
"We love the new generation. Tomorrow is theirs. Today's leadership, of our time, we struggled a lot 40 years ago in Youth Congress and NSUI. And after 40 years we are alive; some became PCC president, minister, AICC general secretary, and central ministers. The new generation which has come, it is wrong to say that we don't like them," Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot said.
"Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi like them. Ashok Gehlot likes them," he added.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said: "Horse trading was being done in Jaipur, we have the proof. We had to keep people at a hotel for 10 days, if we had not done that, the same thing that is happening in Manesar now would have happened back then"
The Congress petitions seeking the disqualification of 19 of its Rajasthan MLAs, including former deputy chief minister and state party president Sachin Pilot, have cited the legislators’ absence from successive Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings, conspiring to bring down the elected government in Rajasthan, and statements made by them to the press as grounds to establish that they have “voluntarily given up the membership of the Congress.” On Tuesday, the Rajasthan Assembly Secretariat issued notices to all the MLAs who are Pilot loyalists after the disqualification petitions were submitted by Congress Chief Whip Mahesh Joshi to Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi. Click here to read the full story.
The petitions filed by the Congress, seeking the disqualification of 19 MLAs from Rajasthan including former deputy chief minister and state party president Sachin Pilot have cited the legislators' absence from successive Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings, conspiring to bring down the elected government in Rajasthan and statements made by them to the media as grounds to establish that they have 'voluntarily given up the membership of the Congress.'
Some of the notices addressed to individual MLAs from the Pilot camp along with the petitions have been accessed by The Indian Express. The notices were pasted at the gateway of the residence of these legislators. In the petitions, it has been argued by the Congress Chief Whip that the actions of these legislators lead to the conclusion that they have 'voluntarily given up membership' of the Congress party and therefore should be disqualified.
The BJP has 72 MLAs of its own, and has the support of the 3 MLAs of the Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, which takes its tally to 75. If the BJP sees an opportunity to topple the government, it can be expected to pull out all the stops to try to do so.
The 19 Congress MLAs have been given time until Friday (July 17) to reply to the Speaker’s notice. But they can challenge the notices served on them in court, either before or after that date. That will add a new dimension to the power struggle.
Should the disqualification process get stayed by a court order, and there is a trial of strength in the Assembly, the numbers game will become tight for Gehlot. That is because the Congress rebels may go with the BJP, and the saffron party will then have, along with Beniwal’s three MLAs, 94 votes in the Assembly. And the fortunes of Gehlot (88) will then depend solely on the 13 Independents and the MLAs of the smaller parties.
The Congress had won 100 seats in the Assembly elections of December 2018. The party won one seat (Ramgarh) later in a by-election, which took its tally to 101. Subsequently, six MLAs of the BSP joined the party, taking its tally to 107. With the issuing of the notices to 19 MLAs, the strength of the Congress in the Rajasthan Assembly now effectively stands at 88.
Gehlot claims the support of Independents and members of the smaller parties, and says that he still has the majority in the 200-member House But although he has claimed the support of 109 MLAs, the fact that 19 MLAs are with Pilot shows that he will have to depend heavily on the 13 Independents and MLAs of smaller parties like the BTP and the CPM to win in the event of a trial of strength in the House.
"We do not feel such need as of now. If we feel the need, the party will sit together and make a decision," says BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria
Sources said Pilot had two main demands: replace Gehlot and make him the CM, or give a public commitment that he will be made CM at least a year before the next Assembly elections in 2023. The demands, according to a Congress leader who was part of the talks, were “unreasonable”. Despite Pilot’s posturing that his fight is for “honor and justice” — in the context of the FIR and the SOG notice — sources said the post of the CM was at the heart of the negotiations