Rajasthan Congress crisis may defuse with Rahul Gandhi's intervention

NEW DELHI: Amid the political crisis in Rajasthan, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had a conversation with Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, claimed sources in the party. "Pilot had a conversation with former party chief Rahul Gandhi over the political crisis in the state, source claimed. According to party sources, Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, who has been in Delhi-NCR along with over 25 MLAs, is set to arrive in the state capital.

"Pilot will attend the meeting of the party leaders in Jaipur along with the senior party leaders," the source claimed. The source further said that a meeting has been called by Gehlot on Monday at 10.30 a.m. which will be attended by Pilot.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leaders — Ajay Maken, Randeep Singh Surjewala and state in-charge Avinash Pandey are set to reach Jaipur on Sunday night to contain the dissidence in the party.

The source said that former union minister Makan along with Pandey and Surjewala is set to leave for Jaipur in the night by a chartered plane.

Meanwhile, Surjewala took a swipe at the BJP and in a tweet in Hindi wrote, "Entire country is suffering from COVID-19 crisis and the fresh daily cases have crossed 29,000 mark. China has occupied our lands and the ruling party first bought our MLAs in Madhya Pradesh and now trying to lure legislators in Rajasthan. One needs to understand that crisis is not for any state but for the entire democracy."

Earlier in the day, Pandey asserted that forces trying to destabilise the Ashok Gehlot government will not succeed and the party MLAs are intact.

In a series of tweets, Pandey said, "All the means to buy the Congress-led government in Rajasthan would not succeed. Whatever offer the BJP may make to Congress MLAs but our legislators including the independents are united." "And they all support the Congress-led Ashok Gehlot government in the state," he said in another tweet.

His remarks came amid the political crisis in the state after Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot went incommunicado along with over a dozen of MLAs. Pilot, who arrived in the national capital on Saturday has also sought a meeting with party interim chief Sonia Gandhi over the issue.

According to party sources, Pilot did speak with Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel late on Saturday night but the rift between Gehlot and his deputy is deep-rooted ever since former took over as Chief Minister. The Congress is trying to pacify both the camps in the state to save the party from another embarrassment, sources said.

The fears are whether 'Operation Lotus' will be successful or not in Rajasthan and will the state see a rerun of the Madhya Pradesh story? The Gehlot camp claims that his government has the numbers and the Chief Minister has support of 103 MLAs. (IANS)

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