Suspense prevails on Sachin Pilot’s next move

The rumors that Pilot might form a new outfit gained limelight after his reported meeting with election strategist Prashant Kishor a few days back.

Bhoomi Goyal
Published on: 9 Jun 2023 2:01 PM GMT
Suspense prevails on Sachin Pilot’s next move
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Suspense continuous to prevail on the next move of Rajasthan’s former deputy chief minister and senior congress leader Sachin pilot who is going to organize a program on the occasion of his father Rajesh Pilot’s death anniversary on June 11th.

According to some media reports Sachin Pilot is making plans to form a new political party and he may announce it on June 11.

The rumors that Pilot might form a new outfit gained limelight after his reported meeting with election strategist Prashant Kishor a few days back.

The congress leaders have the rejected the reports and maintained that Pilot would remain in the party.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also said that Sachin would not leave the party.

Pilot, who was made deputy CM of Rajasthan after the Congress was swept to power following 2018 assembly elections, had, apparently eyeing the top post, rebelled in 2020 and had holed up for several days at a Gurgaon hotel along with 20 MLAs with what many say the backing of the BJP.

At one point it seemed as if the Congress government in Rajasthan would meet the same fate as the MP government but Gehlot who is called 'magician' cleverly handled the situation and managed to save his government.

Pilot, however appeared to be getting restless once again and the same was evident recently when he sat on a hunger strike against his own government in protest against what he claimed failure of Gehlot to act on the alleged corruption charges against the previous BJP government as promised in the Congress’ election manifesto then.

While the strike ended after a day, it was speculated in the political circles in the state that Pilot was on his way out.

It is speculated in a section of the media that Pilot may align with non-Congress, non-BJP forces to present a third alternative before the electorate and several names including that the Aam Admi Party and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) are touted as his possible allies.

Pilot, who had led the Congress to victory in the 2018 assembly polls, wields a considerable influence over the ‘Gujjar’ voters, who are deciding factor on 30-35 seats in around a dozen districts including Bharatpur, Dhoulpur, Karoli, Sawai Madhopur, Jaipur, Dausa, Tonk, Kota, Bhilwara, Bundi and Ajmer.

Pilot’s supporters claim that the poor performance of the BJP in the eastern region of the state, where the BJP could manage to win only one of the 40 seats, was mainly due to the hard work by Pilot, who campaigned tirelessly for the party nominees and led the congress to victory.

Some media reports claimed that Pilot had the support of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and also the party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra but there was no official word to this effect.

Gehlot loyalists feel that the ‘magician’ is capable of ensuring a second term for the party even in the absence of Pilot.

It will be interesting to see if Pilot also goes the Jyotiraditya Scindia way or prefers to remains in his parent party.

Bhoomi Goyal

Bhoomi Goyal

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