Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot on Wednesday said he has no “personal animosity” against senior party colleague Ashok Gehlot and asserted that they, along with other party leaders in Rajasthan, have to fight “unitedly” to take on the BJP “double engine” in the 2028 assembly polls.
In an interview with PTI Videos, Pilot also said Gehlot is an elder and therefore, the former Rajasthan chief minister has “more latitude” to say things and that is “absolutely fine”.
You are wrong that they promised something. It’s all circumstantial. It’s all situational. Depending on where I am most usable for the party, I do whatever they ask me to. “We are in opposition. We are taking on the double engine — government of India and government of Rajasthan and they are misusing agencies and police like never before. So to fight that force we all have to fight unitedly.
For the Congress to win in Rajasthan in 2028 December, we all have to work together. In June, Gehlot had raked up Pilot’s 2020 rebellion against him and said that the September 2022 incident, when a legislature party meeting could not be held, was not a revolt against the Congress high command but a disagreement among the MLAs over Pilot’s possible elevation as the chief minister. A Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting was called in Jaipur on September 25, 2022, to discuss the leadership of the Rajasthan government if Gehlot were to be elected president of the party, but the party MLAs close to Gehlot did not attend the meeting and opposed any move to make Pilot the chief minister.
Asked whether he was promised the chief ministerial post in Rajasthan by the party but was not given, Pilot said, “There are no promises in politics. “I was asked to campaign in Kerala, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, wherever they ask me to campaign and I enjoy it and I try and do the best I can with the assignment I am given,” the former Union minister said. Not just him and me but the entire party leadership in Rajasthan,” he said. On ambition and willingness to be chief minister, Pilot said the party has to win first and get a majority.
I have been a member of Parliament, I have been a Union minister, I am an MLA today, I was deputy chief minister.
