Ending a month-long political turmoil, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met his former deputy Sachin Pilot in Jaipur on Thursday after a resolution brokered by the top Congress leadership led to the return of 19 dissident MLAs to the party fold. Coming face-to-face the first time after the crisis erupted, the two leaders smiled and greeted each other with a warm handshake.
Mr. Pilot — who had staged a rebellion and left the Jaipur along with his supporters last month — attended a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) convened at Mr. Gehlot’s official residence to chalk out the party’s strategy for the crucial session of the State Assembly beginning on Friday. The session is likely to be stormy in view of the Opposition BJP’s attacks.
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Congress leaders K.C. Venugopal, Avinash Pande, Randeep Surjewala, Ajay Maken and Govind Singh Dotasra were present during Mr. Gehlot’s meeting with Mr. Pilot. All of them later posed together for the cameras.
Confident of numbers
Mr. Gehlot announced at the CLP meeting that the Congress government would move a confidence motion and seek a trust vote on the floor of the House. However, the BJP — hoping that the truce in the ruling party would not last long — stated earlier in the day that it would bring a no-confidence motion against the government in the Assembly.
While assuring that the grievances of the dissident MLAs would be addressed, Mr. Gehlot said the government would have proved its majority even without them, but added that this would “not give us happiness”.
“Apne toh apne hi hotey hain (Our own people are after all our own),” he remarked. All the legislators raised their hands when Mr. Gehlot asked them to stay united.
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Mr. Pilot, who was seated next to Mr. Gehlot, expressed his gratitude to the party leaders and workers for supporting him during his tenure as the Pradesh Congress Committee president for six years. He also thanked Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Gehlot for appointing him as Deputy CM after the Congress' victory in the 2018 Assembly election.
AICC general secretary Mr. Venugopal told reporters after the meeting that the Congress was united and would would fight against the BJP's “divisive politics”. “Everything went off well... Tomorrow in Vidhan Sabha, Congress party will stand united and fight out,” he said.
Earlier, AICC general secretary in charge of Rajasthan Avinash Pande announced revocation of suspension of MLAs Bhanwarlal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh, who were supporting Mr. Pilot. The two legislators were suspended from the party’s primary membership on July 17 after some audio clips pertaining to an alleged conspiracy to topple the Gehlot government were leaked.
Mr. Singh was also sacked as the Tourism Minister and the party had issued show cause notices to both the MLAs. Congress national spokesperson Mr. Surjewala had said the two would remain suspended until the veracity of the clips was ascertained.
Mr. Gehlot tweeted separately that that the misunderstanding that occurred in the party in the last one month needed to be forgiven and forgotten in the interest of the country, State and the people and in the interest of democracy.
“We have to put all our energies in this fight to save democracy with the spirit of forgive and forget and move forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, the hearing in the Rajasthan High Court on the petitions moved by the Bahujan Samaj Party and BJP MLA Dilawar challenging the merger of six BSP MLAs in Congress remained inconclusive on Thursday. The hearing will continue on Friday.
