Congress...

Both Gehlot and Pilot will take their oaths of office and secrecy on December 17, the day Kamal Nath will be sworn in as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister. The announcement came at a joint press conference at Congress headquarters in New Delhi. Congress general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan Avinash Pande, central observer KC Venugopal and former union minister Jitendra Singh were also present at the press conference. Referring to Gehlot’s ‘kaun banega crorepati’ reply to a question on who will be the chief minister at a press conference last month, Pilot, in a lighter vein, said, “Who would have known that instead of one there will be two crorepatis.”

Jaipur-based political expert Narayan Bareth said Gandhi had done a “balancing act by taking experienced Gehlot and young and dynamic Pilot together” before Lok Sabha elections next year.

Pilot took over as the Rajasthan Congress chief in January 2014, nearly a month after the party was decimated in the assembly elections in which it managed to win just 21 of the 200 seats in the assembly.

The poor show continued in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as the Congress failed to open its account while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won all 25 seats.

The Congress dethroned the BJP in the just-concluded assembly elections, winning 99 seats. The BJP won 73 seats.

The Congress has the support of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with six legislators and also some independents.

“Mera aur Ashok Gehlot ji ka jaadu puri tarah chal gaya hai (our magic completely worked in the state),” Pilot told reporters.

Gehlot thanked Gandhi for giving him the opportunity to serve the people of the state for a third time as CM and promised that he and Pilot will provide good governance.

Gehlot was brought to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in April 2017 as general secretary in-charge of Gujarat and took charge of organisation and training in March this year, replacing another veteran, Janardan Dwivedi.

Apart from Gehlot, only three leaders have so far occupied the CM’S post three times. The others are Mohan Lal Sukhadia and Haridev Joshi of the Congress and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat of the BJP.

Gehlot has been a member of