Rajasthan crisis: Sachin Pilot says not joining BJP

NE NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, JULY 15

“I am not joining the BJP,” Congress leader Sachin Pilot said on Wednesday, asserting that the speculation about his switching sides was being fuelled by certain leaders in Rajasthan to tarnish his image.

Pilot’s remarks come a day after the Congress sacked him as Rajasthan’s deputy chief minister and the party’s state unit president. Two loyalists of Pilot were also dropped from the state Cabinet.

“I have worked very hard to bring the Congress party back in the government and defeat the BJP,” he said.

In an apparent reference to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s camp, Pilot said some leaders in Rajasthan were trying to fuel speculation that he is joining the BJP and that he would like to categorically state that he was not doing so.

“Such speculation is being fuelled to tarnish my image,” he said.

After being sacked, Pilot had tweeted in Hindi on Tuesday, “Truth can be rattled, not defeated.”

Gehlot has accused his former deputy of playing into the hands of the BJP.

Pilot had kept away from two CLP meetings held on Monday and Tuesday after which the action against him was taken.

Pilot has been upset since the Congress picked Gehlot as the chief minister after the 2018 assembly polls, while his own supporters insisted that he deserved credit for the party’s victory as its state unit president.

The current crisis erupted last Friday when the Rajasthan Police sent a notice to Pilot, asking him to record his statement over the alleged bid to bring down the government.

The same notice was sent to the chief minister and some other MLAs, but Pilot’s supporters claimed that it was only meant to humiliate him.

The Special Operation Group (SOG) had sent out the notices after tapping a phone conversation between two men, who were allegedly discussing the fall of the Gehlot government.

Rebel MLAs face disqualification from Rajasthan Assembly, Speaker sends notices

Rajasthan Speaker C P Joshi has issued notices to Sachin Pilot and other rebel Congress MLAs after the party seeking their disqualification from the state assembly.

Sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and the other MLAs were asked to respond to the notices by Friday, sources said. The notices were issued on Tuesday.

Congress sources said Pilot and 18 other MLAs had defied a whip and did not attend its legislature party meetings.

Sachin Pilot was on Tuesday sacked as deputy chief minister and the state Congress president after he did not show up at the Congress Legislature Party meetings on Monday and Tuesday.

Two other ministers in the Pilot camp, Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena, were also dropped from the Cabinet for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to topple the Ashok Gehlot government.

The party had filed a petition with Speaker C P Joshi, seeking the disqualification of all party MLAs who did not attend the CLP meeting, AICC general secretary Avinash Pande said on Wednesday.

He said it was up to the Speaker to decide what action to take if the replies to the notices were not satisfactory.

The party has also issued a gag order, saying no Congress member can communicate with the media without the permission of the newly appointed state unit chief.

On Tuesday, Avinash Pande, who is the Rajasthan in-charge at the AICC, dissolved the state executive and all cells of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC).

The Congress had appointed Govind Singh Dotasara as the new president of the party’s Rajasthan unit.

With the appointment of the new president, a new state executive and departments will be formed, Pande said.

He said no Congressman will communicate with the media without the permission of the state unit president.