Rajasthan Congress story takes Sachin Pilot-may-leave twist, his silence adds to drama

Congress leadership is struggling to find a middle way between Pilot and Ashok Gehlot, but neither side believes a new party is on the cards.

ITDC INIDA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS: On Monday night, Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation K C Venugopal had a lengthy telephonic conversation with Sachin Pilot – their third such talk since May 29, when the party leadership managed to make Pilot and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot sit together to thrash out differences.

That meeting ended without the party being able to announce a peace formula.

On Tuesday, as news started swirling that Pilot might announce a new party in the poll-bound state, the Congress seemed no closer to finding a way to accept the younger leader’s three core demands without antagonising the Chief Minister or discrediting his government.

Sources close to the Pilot camp denied news reports that he would float a party on June 11, which marks the death anniversary of his father and late Congress leader Rajesh Pilot. They also suggested that news regarding this was being spread by the Gehlot camp.

However, there was no official word from Pilot or his supporters on this.

Sources said the high command wants to meet Pilot at least halfway, but its task has been rendered tricky by the former Deputy CM’s insistence that Gehlot accept all his demands – a high-level inquiry into alleged corruption cases against the previous Vasundhara Raje government, disbanding of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (which has seen leakage of papers in several exams), its reconstitution via a new law, and compensation for students who have suffered due to the question paper leaks.

The Gehlot side believes that acceptance of these demands would show his government in a bad light just months before the elections, particularly given Pilot’s accusation that the probe into cases dating back to the Raje government has been deliberately delayed.

However, Pilot too is coming under pressure from his supporters as his demands see no forward movement, and the 15-day deadline he had set for the Congress government expiring. It is against this backdrop that there is speculation that he will announce his next course of action on June 11.

According to sources close to Pilot, a Plan B of walking out of the Congress and floating a separate outfit has been on his mind for some months. Pilot is believed to have hired political consultancy firm I-PAC as part of this recently. Sources say the two I-PAC executives assigned to him had worked out a proposal to float a party.

Some AICC leaders feel his ratcheting up of pressure with well-framed demands, day-long dharna (against the high command’s wishes) and five-day yatra were all part of this larger plan.