Useless, useless… ‘The discord between Gehlot-Pilot increased due to sharp rhetoric, did the Karnataka results show the way to reconciliation?

In the politics of Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot’s enmity has become many years old. It started before 2018, but it has gained more momentum now. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge held a crucial four-hour meeting with both the leaders, the outcome is not yet clear, but the party has said that it has been agreed to fight the elections together.

The question that arises is whether this long-standing enmity can end after a four-hour meeting? The answer can be found only when the root cause of this enmity is properly understood. Sachin Pilot was the Rajasthan Congress President before 2018, he claims that the election was fought under his leadership. The Congress had registered a victory in that assembly election. Sachin Pilot wanted the crown of victory to be tied on his head, his ambition to become the Chief Minister was strong.

There was a big challenge in front of the Congress, on one side was the two-time Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and on the other was the young firebrand leader Sachin Pilot. The party was seeing its present in Gehlot and its future in Pilot, so the decision was taken moving forward on the same principle. Ashok Gehlot was made the Chief Minister of the state for the third time. Sachin Pilot was given the post of deputy CM and the post of state president was also allowed to remain with him.

Now Sachin Pilot has a complaint, he has become the Deputy CM but he has no control over the officers. They were not even able to appoint any officer of their choice. On top of all this, in 2020, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot alleged that the BJP tried to topple his elected government. In fact, the police had arrested two BJP leaders. An audio tape of both of them surfaced in which it was said – Only the Deputy CM wants to become the CM.

At that time, Sachin Pilot was on the post of Deputy CM, in such a situation a police notice also went to him. Now CM Ashok Gehlot did not pay much attention to this notice at that time, but Sachin Pilot and his supporters considered it a personal attack. Now the issue was different, but Pilot directly opened the front against Ashok Gehlot. It was claimed from his side that there are 30 MLAs in contact with him, an attempt was made to convey the message that CM Gehlot’s government has been reduced to a minority. Now the claims kept changing, but at one point Pilot stayed in a hotel in Gurugram for a month with 18 MLAs.