A GROUNDED PILOT
In the end, all Congress rebel leader Sachin Pilot could extract from the party high command was a fair hearing of his grievances, and the institution of a three-member panel to ‘independently’ review his critical notes on the Ashok Gehlot-led government in Rajasthan. “There was absolutely no deal,” says a rebel leader close to Pilot. Apart from this panel, consisting of Ahmed Patel, K.C. Venugopal and Ajay Maken, which will likely act as a buffer between Pilot and Gehlot and new Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Govind Dotasra, the mutineers can claim to have engineered the exit of state in-charge Avinash Pande.
The developments since the big showdown suggest that the high command is treating Pilot gingerly, perhaps to undo any adverse impact his sacking as PCC chief and deputy chief minister may have had on Gujjar votes in the crucial byelections in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. Maken, the new state in-charge, came on a three-day tour of Rajasthan on August 30 (and is again here now in the second week of September). He met with Gehlot, assembly speaker C.P. Joshi and Pilot. The four were later spotted chatting at a dinner Gehlot hosted. Maken has met some 100 leaders till now, including most of the ministers. His public statements made it clear he was there to strengthen the hands of the Gehlot government, commending the “102 bravehearts who defeated the conspiracy to topple our government”.
Pilot, meanwhile, is in a bit of a fix. In the minds of party workers, his status is dodgy, after all the hobnobbing with the BJP. He is no longer the PCC chief, who can order around MLAs and ministers. Half the rebels who backed him have “realised their folly”, and the rest have so little credibility left that even the Gandhis would be reluctant to give them any positions in government.
So, the road ahead looks quite bumpy for Pilot. Even his appearance at party events is causing some unease. On August 28, as protesters gathered at the party HQ in Jaipur to rally against the holding of the JEE/ NEET exams, Pilot entered with a few supporters. Mahesh Joshi, the chief whip who had lodged corruption cases against those trying to topple the government, walked off the dais while Dotasra who was en route cancelled his visit. Transport minister Pratap Khachariyawas, who had organised the function, invited Pilot to speak, but hardly exchanged words with him. In Jaipur, there are rumours that Pilot was the man behind the IT and ED raids on the party’s fundraisers in Rajasthan, and at a time when money is badly needed for the Bihar election.
“Your influence weakens when you leave the party, but then if you return, you are further diminished,’’ says a prominent BJP leader, adding that Pilot lost the plot—he should have waited for a misstep by Gehlot. Pilot will now struggle to establish that he is not a BJP mole; and the grapevine has it that the people who bankrolled the failed coup are now demanding their money back.
Gehlot, meanwhile, is on a high after crushing the rebellion. He has contained the epidemic and has also taken tough decisions—a bureaucratic overhaul has led to the chief secretary, health and home secretaries and many others reportedly close to him being dropped. Gehlot has impressed the Gandhis too with his political skills through the whole rebel crisis, and has been vocal in standing with the Congress first family after the ‘letter episode’ sought changes in the way the party is run.
Enough to say that Pilot just can’t keep up now. His best bet would be to keep a low profile, do his work quietly till such time that an opportunity presents itself. But sitting on the sidelines of real action does not agree with Pilot. On his birthday on September 7, he asked supporters to organise blood donation camps across the state, possibly to demonstrate his influence over the state’s youth. The party high command could still move him to central politics, but that decision, insiders say, will be taken after the Bihar and MP byelections. What Pilot might do in the interim is anybody’s guess.
Pilot will struggle to find his groove again; according to the grapevine, the people who bankrolled the failed coup, want their money back