Sachin Pilot on Tuesday crossed the Rubicon when he held a day-long fast in Jaipur against his own party’s government by defying the Congress high command’s Monday midnight diktat that his ‘proposed fast’ would be considered an “anti-party activity”.

As Pilot walked the talk, he possibly began charting a new political course. With his action, he has virtually put the ball in high command’s court. He tactically avoided any direct attack on Gehlot or AICC and positioned himself as a person who wanted the Congress government to do what it had promised against the previous BJP regime.

“I am watching the situation and discussing the matter with colleagues,” AICC in-charge for the state Sukhjinder Randhawa said.

Given the tone of AICC statement on Monday midnight, Pilot’s action led to talks of imminent notice/disciplinary action against him. However, some Congress leaders said “instead of making Pilot a martyr” pre-poll, the best course would be “to make him ease himself out”. Meanwhile, some Pilot campers claimed he held telephonic talks with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Soon after Pilot started his fast, chief minister Ashok Gehlot released a video message on his Twitter account, calling upon the people of his state to help him realise his “decision of making Rajasthan the number one state of India by 2030”, thus indicating that he was aiming for another stint at the top at this year-end election. Gehlot detailed all policy initiatives in his message.

Pilot fasted at ‘Shaheed Smarak Sthal’ along with many supporters but Congress MLAs and senior Rajasthan PCC functionaries were conspicuously missing just as the Congress flag. After the event, which was ostensibly to register his protest against what he called the inaction of the Gehlot government against the alleged corruption during the BJP regime of Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Pilot said: “Allegations of corruption are not new, they are already in the public domain. I wrote twice for action, but no action was taken. So, action should be taken so that people don’t think that there is a difference between what we promise and what we do.”

On Randhawa’s statement that Pilot never raised this demand with him, Pilot said, “Randhawa became in-charge a few days ago. I had also talked to the earlier in-charge, but this issue is still there. We should speak against corruption and our fight against it will continue.”