JAIPUR: Parliamentary affairs and UDH minister Shanti Dhariwal on Sunday came in support of chief minister Ashok Gehlot to allege that union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Congress leader Sachin Pilot were hand in glove to destabilise the state government in 2020.
Last week union minister Shekhawat remarked and hinted that Pilot 'erred' in July 2020, otherwise the Congress government in Rajasthan would have fallen as happened in Madhya Pradesh. Latching on to the union minister's remark, chief minister Gehlot claimed on Saturday that this was proof of Shekhawat and Pilot's conspiracy in destabilising his government.
Parliamentary affairs minister Dhariwal seconded Gehlot's claim while talking to reporters in Kota on Sunday. "Whatever he (Gehlot) has said is correct. What's wrong with it? What the CM believes, we believe the same. We even witnessed it (in July-August 2020)," Dhariwal said in response to a question.
Deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore, on the other hand, told reporters in Jaipur that Gehlot was back to insulting Pilot. BJP MP from Dausa Jaskaur Meena said Maharashtra-like political crisis would be replayed in Rajasthan. Dhariwal reacted to the BJP MP's statement by saying, "I can't say about Maharashtra but in Rajasthan they (BJP) faced defeat in the past and will meet a similar fate again. In the just concluded Rajya Sabha elections we got all the 126 votes, while BJP lost its (one) vote."
Gehlot is scheduled to fly to New Delhi on Monday apparently to participate in the nomination filing of opposition parties' Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
