Ashok Gehlot says sorry, Rajasthan Congress rift continues

NEW DELHI:  Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot may have apologised to Sonia Gandhi for the revolt raised by MLAs last Sunday but the verbal war between leaders of the Gehlot and Pilot factions continues and both sides are leaving no chance to embarrass each other in Rajasthan.

At a Jaipur press conference, Rajasthan’s cabinet minister Govind Ram Meghwal has warned that if Sachin Pilot is made the CM, all MLAs will resign. He also said that we are ready for mid-term elections rather than accepting Pilot as CM.  

Another Gehlot supporter and RTDC Chairman Dharmendra Rathod also held a press conference on Wednesday and made fierce allegations against the Pilot camp.  He also accused Pilot camp MLA Ved Prakash Solanki of conspiring to get two Congress votes for BJP in the election of the district chief.  The two leaders also showed footage of a meeting of Ved Prakash Solanki and state BJP Chief Satish Poonia in Jaipur’s Mansarovar area. 

A day earlier, it is worth noting that MLA Solanki had called Dharmendra Rathod, a close aide of Gehlot, a ‘registered broker’.  Hitting back at Solanki, now Dharmendra Rathod said that the meeting of Solanki and Poonia has proved who is a traitor and who is loyal. Rathod said that election observer Govind Meghwal sent the report of this entire matter to Rajasthan in-charge Ajay Maken. But, till date no action has been taken on that report.

Responding to Rathod’s statement that 19 MLAs who went to Manesar, including Sachin Pilot, are traitors, an MLA of Pilot faction and Minister of State for Agriculture Marketing Murarilal Meena said, “At that time we had raised the voice of our rights to Delhi.  These people misinterpreted our action.  Somebody says that we had rebelled.  Some say you have become traitors. I say there is no traitor, we stayed there (Manesar) for a month.  But we did not utter a word against the high command of the party or the party in general. It was simply a fight for our  rights.”

On the other hand, a cabinet minister close to Gehlot, Pratap Singh Khachariawas, said that “any decision taken by Sonia Gandhi regarding the CM will be accepted. With CM Gehlot apologising, it means we all have apologised. Now everything depends on Sonia Gandhi. We accept the decision that Sonia Gandhi will take for the post of CM. Our leader is Sonia Gandhi who is also the leader of Ashok Gehlot.”
In order to curb the ongoing tussle between the two factions, the Congress high command late on Thursday has issued an advisory warning rajasthan leaders to avoid accusatory remarks, or be ready for action.