With ‘30’ MLAs, Pilot bid to hijack Gehlot govt

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 12

Four months after the collapse of its government in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress found itself weathering another storm in Rajasthan with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot facing his worst crisis after Deputy CM Sachin Pilot claimed the support of 30 MLAs.

Pilot, who was incommunicado for two days and is camping in Delhi, said late Sunday that the Gehlot government was in minority as 30 Congress lawmakers and some Independents had professed support to him.

Congress doesn’t value talent, says Scindia

Sad to see my erstwhile colleague Sachin Pilot, too, being sidelined and persecuted by Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot. Shows that talent and capability find little credence in the Congress. Jyotiraditya Scindia, BJP leader

Sounding an open rebellion after receiving the Rajasthan Police summons over probe into allegations of toppling the Gehlot government, Pilot also said he won’t attend the Congress Legislature Party meeting in Jaipur tomorrow.

Gehlot, who called 107 Congress MLAs to his residence tonight in a show of strength, has also called a CLP meeting tomorrow to show all is well.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has, meanwhile, sent two central observers — Randeep Surjewala and Ajay Maken — to Jaipur to meet the MLAs and assess the situation.

Congress general secretary (Rajasthan) Avinash Pande, however, said all party lawmakers were in touch with him and he did not know what Pilot was talking about.

Three Congress MLAs close to Pilot — Danish Abrar, Rohit Bohra and Chetan Dudy — meanwhile returned from Delhi to Jaipur tonight to pledge support to Gehlot. They said they had visited Delhi for personal reasons.

Pande dismissed threat to the party’s government in Rajasthan, saying the BJP was trying to destabilise the government but the Gehlot-led dispensation would last a full term. Pilot has been engaged in a power tussle with Gehlot ever since the government was formed.