Lagatar24 Desk
Jaipur, April 9: Party leader Sachin Pilot launched a new attack on his adversary, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, by declaring that he will observe a one-day fast against corruption on Tuesday. With this, the cracks in the state’s Congress organisation came to light on Sunday, months before elections in Rajasthan.
The 45-year-old politician has urged the Gehlot administration to take action against the allegedly corrupt behaviour of the previous BJP administration under Vasundhara Raje.
According to Pilot, it is important to reassure the public that the Congress administration is keeping the pledges and statements it made prior to the 2018 assembly elections. He said that the government had done nothing to stop the Lalit Modi affidavit case, illgal mining, the excise mafia, or land encroachment.
Gehlot accused Raje of corruption and mismanagement in old tapes, and Pilot questioned why he had not opened an investigation or inquiry into these claims. He claimed that despite having proof against the past BJP administration, the Congress government had not taken any action.
“We cannot go into the elections with these promises unfulfilled. We have evidence. We should have acted. We should investigate. We are going into elections. The Model Code of Conduct will come into effect soon. We are answerable to the people,” Pilot said.
“On April 11, I will do a one-day hunger strike to mark my words that action should be taken against corruption in the state so that the public does not feel that we are not doing any work or we have not fulfilled any of our promises,” he announced.
#WATCH | Rajasthan: I wrote a letter to CM Ashok Gehlot and said that elections are coming and we must show the public that there is no difference between our promises and our work. But I have not received any answer from the CM yet…In Rajasthan, we are neither using them nor… pic.twitter.com/sIsQwgA9AL
— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) April 9, 2023
Pilot said that he had made several recommendations to the party leadership over the state of affairs in Rajasthan, one of which was to take action. “Our government is to blame. We must take action. Therefore, people still have faith in us,” he remarked.
The accusations are the most recent in a protracted dispute between Pilot and Gehlot that started after the most recent elections in Rajasthan.
According to reports, the Gandhis informed Pilot that he would time-share the position of chief minister with Gehlot, who was his senior, receiving the first two years of the five-year tenure once the Congress won Rajasthan in 2018. That never happened.
By locking up roughly 20 MLAs at a resort outside of Delhi two years later, in 2020, Pilot attempted to compel a promotion from his position as Deputy Chief Minister. The implication was that he would derail the party if he wasn’t handed Gehlot’s position. The minimal assistance he received, nevertheless, caused his exercise to fail.
When Pilot’s coup failed, he was punished by losing his positions as party leader in Rajasthan and as deputy chief minister.
