BJP’s Joshi might have spoken to the other Sachin: Pilot refutes party-switch claim

JAIPUR: “She might have spoken to Sachin Tendulkar”, said former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Friday while refuting BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s claim that she spoke to him over phone about joining BJP. Pilot left for Delhi in the afternoon, where he is expected to meet Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday.
Amid reports of Pilot’s discontentment with the party’s leadership, Joshi had told a news channel that she urged Pilot to switch over to BJP. “I heard her claim that she spoke to Sachin. She might have spoken to Sachin Tendulkar. She doesn’t have the guts to speak to me,” Pilot told reporters during a Congress protest in Jaipur against fuel price hike.
Speculations over Pilot switching over were rife when Jyotiraditya Scindia joined BJP in March last year and later when he revolted against CM Ashok Gehlot in July. Now, Jitin Prasada joining BJP has once again fuelled conjecture.
Staging a dharna outside a petrol-filling station in the city, Pilot targeted the BJP-led government at the Centre. “Economic slowdown, inflation and unemployment have hit the country hard during the coronavirus pandemic. People have lost jobs and labourers are not getting wages,” he said. “It is sad that lakhs of people died, dead bodies were thrown in rivers and every family struggled to survive the onslaught of the virus. And the government is not taking any step to control inflation and instead, is increasing fuel prices,” he added.
The former deputy CM said, “Just as the PM had to roll back his decision on vaccination and announce free inoculation for all under pressure from Congress, we will be successful in mounting pressure on the Centre over inflation and fuel price hikes too.”
Earlier in the day, Pilot paid tribute to his father and former Union minister Rajesh Pilot on his 21st death anniversary.