Pilot hardens stance, to skip 2nd CLP meet

NEWDELHI: Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot will not attend a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting in Jaipur on Tuesday, people familiar with the developments said.

This will be the second CLP meeting that Pilot will skip. He did not turn up at Monday’s meet even as there seems to be no immediate breakthrough in the power struggle between him and chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

A Congress leader close to Pilot said the issues raised by him still remain unresolved, and unless those are addressed, he will not attend any such meeting.

However, a central functionary insisted that the CLP meeting has been called to give Pilot, who is also the Rajasthan Congress president, and his supporters another chance to explain their position and put forth their grievances. Asked if the party will take any action if he and his supporters decide to skip the CLP meeting for a second straight day, the functionary said: “We will take that call tomorrow [Tuesday]. Pilot will then not be in a position to say that he had not been given a chance to be heard.”

The functionary also ruled out any move to call an emergency session of the assembly and go for a floor test. “We sort of held the floor test today [Monday] and had a proper head count. So far, 109 MLAs are with us and we expect some more to join us,” he added.

But Pilot’s loyalists dismissed the Gehlot camp’s claim of having the required numbers, and said majority is proven in the assembly, not in the backyard of the chief minister’s house.

“If they have the numbers, then why are they after Pilot...Why were these legislators not taken to the Governor’s house?,” said a legislator close to the deputy CM. He also ruled out the possibility of Pilot joining the BJP. “That is not in his DNA. He cannot join the BJP,” added this MLA. Pilot’s camp also refuted reports suggesting that a compromise formula is being worked out to iron out the differences.

While Congress functionaries said the party leadership, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, reached out to Pilot, another legislator close to the deputy chief minister refuted the claim. “There has been no conversation between Pilot and the Congress high command.”

Ladnun MLA Mukesh Bhakar maintained that over 30 legislators are supporting the deputy chief minister. He said their only demand is to replace Gehlot with Pilot given that the state Congress president was instrumental in the party’s victory in the 2018 assembly elections. “We will not budge from that demand,” Bhakar asserted.

Bhakar, who is also the Rajasthan Youth Congress president, further termed the CLP meeting at Gehlot’s residence “invalid”.

Pilot’s office, meanwhile, released a video of legislators backing him holding a meeting at a five-star hotel in Manesar .