The infighting in Congress intensified on Thursday as Rajasthan Minister Rajendra Gudha openly challenged the leadership of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Gudha, one of the 6 BSP MLAs who jumped ship to Congress in September 2019, claimed that 80% of the party MLAs were backing Pilot. Taking a swipe at Gehlot, Gudha opined that the former is occupying the Rajasthan CM’s chair only because of the blessings of the Congress high command. At present, he holds the Independent Charge of the Sainik Kalyan and Home Guard & Civil Defence departments. 

Rajasthan Minister Rajendra Gudha remarked, “If 80% of the MLAs are not with Sachin Pilot, I will leave my stake. He (Gehlot) keeps on saying useless, worthless, and traitor, but I want to say that there can be no better politician for Rajasthan than Sachin Pilot. He (Gehlot) said that he doesn’t have MLAs. Today only, 4 MLAs went with him. Out of the 102 MLAs, he is talking about, I am one of them. Why doesn’t he have a headcount?”

Ashok Gehlot-Sachin Pilot rift

Earlier, Congress MLA Sachin Pilot hit out at Ashok Gehlot for dubbing him a ‘traitor’ and ruling out his Chief Ministerial prospects over his unsuccessful rebellion in 2020. Speaking to the media, he observed, “I think Ashok Ji is someone who has vast experience and has been in a number of positions in the party. He is also the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. I think it is unbecoming of someone with such experience to make such baseless and false remarks.”

Maintaining that the focus should be on making the Bharat Jodo Yatra successful, he added, “The Bharatiya Janata Party was defeated by Congress in the state of Rajasthan when I was the state party president. Ashok Gehlot Ji has been the Chief Minister of the state twice. Both times under his leadership, the Congress party lost badly. Despite that, when we won in 2018, the leadership in the Congress party decided that he should become the Chief Minister for the third time and we all agreed to that.”

Attempting a face-saver amid this war of words, Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh stated, “Shri Ashok Gehlot is a  senior and experienced political leader. Whatever differences he has expressed with his younger colleague Shri Sachin Pilot will be resolved in a manner that strengthens the Congress Party. Right now it is the duty of each and every Congressman and Congresswoman to make the already hugely successful Bharat Jodo Yatra even more impactful in the North Indian states.”