15 CONG LEADERS WRITE TO SONIA AS RAJ POLITICAL TURMOIL GROWS

JAIPUR: Amid the continuing pressure on the Ashok Gehlot government for cabinet expansion and political appointments by MLAs loyal to former deputy CM Sachin Pilot, 15 Congress candidates, who lost the Rajasthan assembly elections in 2018, have written to party president Sonia Gandhi, complaining about undue influence of the BSP-turned-Congress MLAs and independents on the state government.

HT has a copy of the letter written to Sonia Gandhi.

As the Congress wrestles with the demands from the Pilot camp, six BSP MLAs who merged with the Congress in 2019 threw their weight behind chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s leadership, saying they and 10 independents had saved the government during the political crisis triggered in July 2020 by the rebellion of Pilot and 18 supporting MLAs. Demanding rewards for their support, the BSP MLAs objected to any move by the Congress high command to pacify the Pilot camp.

“We welcome the support of BSP MLAs who joined the Congress and independent MLAs to the government. In the twoand-a-half-year tenure of the party’s government (in Rajasthan), there was negligible participation of the Congress candidates, be it the appointment of the officials or nomination of councillors; the BSP MLAs and independents are having undue influence on the government,” said the letter written by the 15 Congress leaders. “Party workers and people who voted in 2018 are not being heard in the government.”