THE FACE-OFF
and finance, but the initial few months passed without any confrontation as Gehlot did not interfere in Pilot’s departments. Gradually, however, the discontent grew as Gehlot treated him as just another senior minister, not the CM-in-waiting Pilot wanted to fashion himself as. “Pilot was the deputy chief minister-cum-Pradesh Congress Committee chief for over one and a half years with important portfolios, including the public works department, rural development and science & technology. Yet, he wasted the opportunity because he spent all the time dreaming about becoming the CM and, therefore, was conspiring with the BJP all throughout,” Gehlot has said in an interview to an economic daily.
The first signs of a rift emerged after the 2019 Lok Sabha poll when contrary to Gehlot’s promise, the Congress failed to win a single seat from Rajasthan. Even his son, Vaibhav Gehlot, lost by a huge margin of 260,000 votes from Jodhpur. “Gehlot promised a handsome tally for the Congress in the Lok Sabha election. The Congress candidate could not win even in Gehlot’s own booth,” says Pilot, who at that time sent feelers to Delhi that Gehlot now be made to vacate the chief minister’s chair. In response, Gehlot asked Pilot to take responsibility—as the PCC chief—for the defeat and do a detailed study of each constituency, including Jodhpur, to ascertain why the party lost. He even hinted at Pilot’s role in his son’s defeat.
FALLOUT OF A RESIGNATION
The Lok Sabha debacle also resulted in a development that hurt Pilot politically—Rahul stepping down as Congress president. Sonia was back at the helm and the party’s old guard, which had always backed Gehlot, started calling the shots. With Rahul retreating into a shell, Pilot got restless. He started questioning Gehlot’s performance as Rajasthan’s home minister. He also brought several lapses in the state’s governance to the notice of the Congress high command, who at times questioned Gehlot, putting him in an embarrassing situation. “Ever since we formed the government, he (Pilot) has been indulging in public bickering, speaking against me and projecting in the media the impression of deep infighting in our government,” Gehlot said in his interview.
Pilot refutes the charges, claiming that after Rahul’s exit, Gehlot lost no opportunity to humiliate and corner him. “The bureaucrats were asked not to follow my directives. Files were not sent to me, cabinet meetings and CLP meetings had not been held for months,” he claims. There was also allegedly a squeeze on the release of funds to his public works department. Government officials denied both allegations.
Then, on December 5, 2019, in a video conference attended by district collectors and police officers, when the state chief secretary asked Gehlot if he should invite Pilot to address them, the chief minister retorted: “Arre chhodo (Forget it).” Pilot, who was attending, heard it. For the re
“Speaking good English, giving good quotes and being handsome isn’t everything. What is in your heart for the country, your ideology, policies and commitment—everything is important”
cord, the post of deputy CM has no constitutional validity and at such conferences, Pilot was treated at par with other ministers. Gehlot apparently felt the chief secretary had mischievously mentioned the deputy CM’s name. Another controversy was Pilot’s photo missing from government advertisements. In its first year in office, the Congress government spent over Rs 25 crore on official advertisements, but these carried only pictures of Gehlot.
While Pilot was eyeing Gehlot’s chair, the latter began clamouring for Pilot’s ouster as state Congress chief, citing the one man, one post norm. Congress sources say it was the beginning of a full-fledged counter-offensive by Gehlot. Pilot tried to build pressure on the high command to rein in Gehlot. At the same time, claim sources, he began exploring options to secure his political career.
In December 2019, while celebrating the completion of his first year in office, Gehlot made public his apprehension that a conspiracy was on to topple his government. When the Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled on March 27, were deferred because of the national lockdown imposed to tackle the Covid outbreak, he even accused the Election Commission of deliberately giving the BJP time to ‘buy’ MLAs in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Pilot called a media conference to criticise Gehlot’s stand, fuelling suspicion that he was planning to defect to the BJP. After all, barely two weeks ago, Pilot’s former colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia, who lost the chief minister’s post in MP to veteran Kamal Nath, had joined the BJP with his loyalist MLAs, pulling down the Congress government in the state.
At the time the Rajya Sabha elections were eventually being held on June 19, Gehlot accused the BJP of trying to buy Congress MLAs, a charge his deputy dismissed. Gehlot shifted his MLAs to a hotel and ensured the victory of the two Congress Rajya Sabha candidates. Of critical significance here was the timing of Gehlot’s move—on June 10, just a day before the death anniversary of Rajesh Pilot. Sachin had organised an event to pay tribute to his father in Dausa, where he was hoping to gather 60 MLAs and 10 ministers. He claimed that Gehlot sabotaged the event only to display to the high command that the chief minister enjoyed the support of more MLAs.
Gehlot now claims his move was to pre-empt what Pilot did a month later, by taking MLAs to a resort in Manesar. “Had I not acted, the BJP and Pilot would have defeated one of our Rajya Sabha candidates and pulled down the government,” he says. The convincing victory in the Rajya Sabha gave Gehlot the confidence to go all out against Pilot. Before the Rajya Sabha polls, Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi lodged a complaint with the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Special Operations Group (SOG)—departments under the CM— about a conspiracy to topple the government.
“All I wanted was a respectable working environment. Instead, the CM (Gehlot) made it an agenda to humiliate me and prevent me from delivering my commitments to my people. It’s not about power, position or privilege. It’s about dignity and the freedom to work” “I did not have any communication with Congress president Sonia Gandhi-ji and Rahul-ji. Priyanka Gandhi-ji spoke to me over phone. It was a personal conversation. It did not lead to any resolution”
THE SHOWDOWN
The final trigger for Pilot’s open rebellion was a notice issued to him by the SOG to record his statement in connection with the arrest of two BJP leaders for their alleged attempt to topple the Gehlot government. While a similar notice was sent to Gehlot and others, Pilot saw it as public humiliation and a bid to finish him off politically. He left for Delhi on July 11 and went incommunicado. “The SOG sent notices to me as the chief minister, to him as (the then) PCC chief and deputy CM, to the chief whip and four MLAs to give evidence. When none of us has any problem with the notices, why is Pilot complaining and getting rattled?” Gehlot said in his interview.
While the media claimed that nearly 30 MLAs—enough to topple Gehlot— had been camping in the Manesar hotel, the final count was only 18. Pilot declared he was not going to join the BJP, but declined to participate in a CLP meeting convened by the chief minister, which eventually led to his ouster as both deputy chief minister and party unit chief. “My self-respect was hurt. The state police served me a notice that had sedition charges. In the Congress manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, we talked about repealing draconian sedition laws. And here, a Congress government was using it against its own minister,” Pilot told india today.
On July 15, as Pilot and his 18 loyalists declined to attend two consecutive CLP meetings, assembly speaker Joshi sent them a notice of disqualification. It was for disobeying the party whip to attend the legislature meet convened by the chief minister. Pilot’s detractors claim it is this fear of disqualification that has prevented Pilot from openly seeking the BJP’s help or declaring his intent to leave the Congress, as any public statement to that effect could become grounds for disqualification as an MLA.
The Congress is now convinced of Pilot’s involvement with the BJP and—learning from the Scindia episode in Madhya Pradesh—has adopted a dual strategy. First, apart from taking punitive action against Pilot, Gehlot has
launched a direct personal attack on his former deputy. “Speaking good English, giving good quotes and being handsome isn’t everything. What is in your heart for the country, what’s your ideology, what are your policies and commitment? Everything is important,” said Gehlot, in an apparent dig at Pilot. He has also warned of strict disciplinary action against other rebels, starting with a notice for disqualification. The idea is to project Pilot as cornered and weak and drive fear into his supporters so that they return to the Gehlot camp.
Second, Surjewala kept making public appeals to Pilot for a truce. The Congress realises Gehlot may have saved the government for now, but the risk of Pilot striking back with the BJP’s support remains. More importantly, the Congress will not want Pilot to walk away as a ‘martyr’ who was harassed and pushed to the brink by party veterans. “Rahul Gandhi made six calls to Pilot, Priyanka Gandhi four. Ashok Gehlot and P. Chidambaram also spoke to him. We are ready to hear out his grievances and sort those out. But he wants to become chief minister right now. Politics cannot be so transactional,” Surjewala said.
Pilot calls the allegations a malicious narrative to destroy his credibility. “I did not have any communication with Congress president Sonia Gandhi-ji and Rahul Gandhi-ji. Priyanka Gandhi-ji spoke to me over phone. It was a personal conversation. It did not lead to any resolution,” Pilot has said repeatedly, asserting that his was a fight for hurt pride. On July 17, Gehlot even extended an olive branch: “I have known Sachin since he was three years old, and will embrace him if he returns.” He can afford to be magnanimous. Unlike his counterparts in Karnataka and MP, Gehlot has succeeded in thwarting an alleged saffron plan to dethrone him. The challenge for him now is to keep his government secure for the next three years at least.
GEHLOT’S PLAN HAS BEEN TO PROJECT PILOT AS CORNERED AND WEAK, SO THAT DRIVEN BY FEAR, HIS SUPPORTERS DESERT HIM