Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot have been locked in a tussle since Congress came to power in Rajasthan in December 2018.
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Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Wednesday cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “aggressive” campaign in Rajasthan to stress that the decision on party affairs must be taken soon to galvanise workers ahead of the assembly polls which are due later this year. Speaking to news agency PTI, Pilot flagged the “inordinate delay” by the party leadership against those who went against then Congress president Sonia Gandhi by not letting a legislature party meeting take place.
“We are heading towards an election very soon, the budget has also been presented, and the party leadership has said many times that it would take a decision on how to move forward. Whatever decisions have to be taken about the Congress party in Rajasthan, should be taken as we are looking at polls at the end of the year,” Pilot said.
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A major row erupted in the run-up to the Congress presidential election when central observers Ajay Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge failed to convene a meeting of MLAs to pass a one-line resolution to authorise Sonia Gandhi to appoint a new leader in Rajasthan. Ashok Gehlot – under Congress’s new rule of ‘one person one post’ – was asked to resign as Rajasthan chief minister before filing nomination for party’s presidential election. It was widely reported that Pilot would replace Gehlot for the state’s top post.
However, after the fiasco, Gehlot opted out of the party chief race and apologised publicly for failing to get the resolution passed. Three Gehlot loyalists – MLAs Dharmendra Rathore, Shanti Dhariwal and Mahesh Joshi, who is the chief whip of the party in the assembly – were issued show cause notices for indiscipline. The party has not taken any action on the notices though the MLAs have responded to the charges against them.
“I am told through the media that they have replied to those notices. So far, there has been no decision or action taken by the AICC (All India Congress Committee). I think the disciplinary committee under Antony and the Congress president and leadership can best answer as to why there has been such a long delay in a decision,” PTI quoted Pilot as saying.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself is campaigning aggressively and the Congress needs to hit the ground running and galvanise workers so that “we are battle ready”, he said.
“It was under the direction of the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi ji that the CLP meeting was called so this was open defiance and non-compliance of the party directive,” Pilot said.
“Discipline and the party line are the same for everybody who or she he may be… It does not matter if you are big or small, discipline is paramount and that is what (AICC in-charge Rajasthan) Sukhjinder Randhawa had been asserting,” Pilot said.
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“People who defied the party at that time in September, so many months have gone by, Congress workers are asking that this inordinate delay, what does this signify, the party should take a call and that Antony, Kharge and the party leadership should look into it,” he reiterated his stand.
