In the new Congress of Rahul Gandhi, the trend of loyalists leaving the party has become a significant issue due to personal & professional differences. It can now be seen formulated in Rajasthan as the state elections are coming this year. The game of hide & seek of sour & sweet tussle of new-gen leaders & the old guns is relaid in Rajasthan between the young aspiring Chief Minister Sachin Pilot & three-time Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
To understand their famous rivalry, we must know how it got started. The seeds of disregard were sown in the 2018 Rajasthan Assembly elections. After the unsuccessful Assembly election of 2013, Congress won just over 20 seats. The party decided to turn the wave by making Sachin Pilot the Rajasthan Congress State President. There are various reasons to be speculated for bringing him in, such as his voter appeal, management skills & grip on the party cadre. This bet was fruitful in the 2018 Assembly elections, helping them win over 100 seats & making a Congress majoritarian state.But, the problem started occurring during the 2018 elections only. First, on the
distribution of seats & second, during the selection of the Chief Minister and distribution of ministerial portfolios. Pilot registered his contention for the CM position because of his crucial role in bringing the party back into power. But he was sidelined by the party over the more experienced Ashok Gehlot. The reason assumed for this is the caste dynamics of the state, as Gehlot comes from the OBC category.
However, Pilot was again given the position of Deputy CM. But constant rivalry over state governance and public jibes led to the sacking of the deputy CM in July 2020. The ouster resulted in the rebellious nature of Pilot, which resulted in the setting of his brand of politics by conducting campaigns all around Rajashtan, but without the party’s approval. This lone-wolf attitude got public criticism from time to time by Gehlot, and even the party’s old brass is not liking this indiscipline. Even during the Congress Party presidential election, the State’s political affairs went limbo as Pilot thought it would be the right time to replace Gehlot. However, Gehlot supporters in Congress refused to let the former rebel take a seat. Ashok Gehlot ultimately had to withdraw from the race for president of Congress.
In August 2022, during the Dalit student tragedy, a student was beaten to death by a teacher for allegedly drinking water from the pot reserved for the upper caste people. The Pilot camp exploited the information against Gehlot, and the two engaged in verbal combat. Gehlot, according to him, was delaying Police action. He charged Gehlot for holding up police actions. Later, it was discovered that there was not a separate pot at the school for “upper class” pupils and that the entire plot had been fabricated to include a caste-related element. Time & again, the party had expressed their disconcern towards the flying-solo attitude of the Pilot and said his actions were equal to anti-party activity.
But to save his grace & power position, Pilot is not leaving any stone unturned when criticising the Gehlot Government. Last month, during the protest by the widows of Pulwama martyrs against the Gehlot Government for not fulfilling promises, Pilot came to support the protestors and used this in his favour by writing a letter to the Rajasthan CM to give the widows a hearing. It again speculated their rivalry, which was later clarified by Gehlot disapproving misunderstandings & affirming the party’s upcoming win in the state elections. Though it is pretty amusing that Gehlot once called Pilot a ‘traitor’. That’s why Sachin Pilot on last April 9 announced a day-long fast on April 11. According to him, the Ashok Gehlot-led Government failed to investigate cases of alleged corruption during the BJP rule in Rajasthan. Pilot conducted this day-long fast to pressure Gehlot to take appropriate action. To counter & divert from the issue, Gehlot released a video of his vision to make Rajasthan the top state by 2030. It’s surprising to see this move of Pilot come at a time when the party is facing allegations revealed in the autobiography of ex-congress member Ghulam Nabi Azad.
This upcoming State election will be exciting as this rivalry has become a comic soap opera. We need to see how Congress will try to resolve this rivalry. This animosity between the two power centres of the Rajasthan Congress will be crucial in winning or losing the election because political pageantry plays a significant role in determining primary voter turnout. The tussle between the old guard(Ashok Gehlot, current CM) & the young Turks (Sachin Pilot) is still not showing any improvement as even on hoardings & posters, Gehlot’s face & his social welfare programmes is being promoted on an official level sidelining Pilot. The current CM is trying to lobby his position through public events & meets (haath se haath jodo campaign) and by keeping the position holders close by organising campaign events like Chintan Shivr last January. But according to sources, the party did not welcome the public meeting conducted by Sachin Pilot in the previous couple of months. It has become a point of concern for Congress because of its recent history of members defecting: the famous one was the leaving of Jyotiraditya Scindia due to his rivalry with Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh, which is quite similar to the Pilot vs Gehlot rivalry. Still, there is a long, tumultuous road ahead for Pilot, and it was would quite a spectacle to see the actions of Gehlot to save his CM position and curb opposition within the party.
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