Toppling the Ashok Gehlot government was not our intention: Suspended Congress member Vishvendra Singh

JAIPUR: Former minister and suspended Congress member Vishvendra Singh, who was part of the 18 MLAs in the Sachin Pilot camp, claimed that they never wanted to topple the Ashok Gehlot government.
In an interview with TOI on Wednesday, he said they wanted an audience with the party high command. “We camped in Delhi for a long time since there was a delay by the high command to give us an audience to air our grievances. I am a Congressman and Ashok Gehlot is our leader,” he said.
He also claimed that the purported audio conversation was an edited one in which he was speaking to a friend, not Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
Singh said the problem began since there was a disconnect between the party and the government. Pilot was party state president and deputy CM while he was senior vice-president and a cabinet minister. “We were both in the party and the government. But there was some kind of disconnect between the two which affected the fulfillment of promises made to the people during elections. We wanted to bring it to the notice of the high command,” said Singh, who objected to call their action as a rebellion.
On the demand for a change of leadership, he said “There was no demand for a change of leadership. It is basically to make the Congress leadership aware of the problem. We wanted to meet the high command.”
On allegations of hobnobbing with the BJP, he said, “If we were hobnobbing with the BJP, we would not be sitting in Jaipur today. We are in Jaipur, but if you ask me about other MLAs, I don’t know. Bhanwarlal Sharma came a day before and met CM. It means we were not in any camp as was being alleged.”
Speaking about the two groups in the state Congress - one loyal to Gehlot and another to Pilot -, Singh claimed that “I don’t see any camp. Gehlot is the chief minister, leader of the family and third-time CM. We are here to support him. But constructive criticism should be taken in the right way.”
Claiming that even though he was a suspended member of the Congress, his loyalty remained with the party.