On the very first leg of his pan-Rajasthan tour, newly appointed state in-charge Ajay Maken on Wednesday had a first-hand experience of the clear fault lines within the Congress. A month after truce was announced between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot, the latter's loyalists were seen protesting on the roads and later lathicharged by the police.
Congress general secretary Maken is a member of the three-member committee appointed by the party's central leadership to address the issues of Pilot and his loyalists in the state. On Wednesday, Maken started his tour to meet workers from both factions in order to prepare a report to be submitted to the party high command.
Maken began with the party's Ajmer division, which happens to be the stronghold of Pilot and from where he was elected as an MP in 2009. Even before the meeting with leaders and party workers could begin, Pilot supporters stormed the hotel demanding that Raghu Sharma, a former loyalist believed to be now close to Gehlot, not be part of the meeting being chaired by Maken and the party's Rajasthan unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra.
Several Pilot supporters expressed their unhappiness after they were not allowed to meet Maken personally. Leaders and supporters of the Pilot camp, including Masudha MLA Rakesh Pareek who was one of the 18 MLAs who had walked out with Pilot, subsequently clashed with the police. While the Maken-led committee was meeting the Congress members in a hotel, the other MLAs staged a dharna and they were later pacified by Maken.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Maken said he was unable to give time to all Congress members due to restrictions in view of the coronavirus pandemic. Maken said he would give time to all those who wanted to meet him one-on-one, adding the party is working on a roadmap to strengthen its reach in the state and important decisions regarding it would be made soon.
Pilot may have called himself the strongest warrior of his party in the trust vote that was held on August 14. But the truth is that the situation for the party in the state is still precarious given that a cabinet expansion is due and local body polls are likely to be conducted -- important political developments that could further polarise the already faction ridden unit of the Congress in Rajasthan.
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