An Inside Job

Just days after Congress leader Sachin Pilot claimed to have buried the hatchet with Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, the circumstances surrounding his 2020 rebellion have come back to haunt the party, and that too in an election year.

- Rohit Parihar

Stirring up the hornet’s nest this time is the 55-year-old Rajendra Singh Gudha, a ‘self-proclaimed’ Gehlot loyalist-turned-critic, who was sacked as a minister of state on July 21. Three days later, the state assembly witnessed unruly scenes as Gudha chose that very public venue to carry out his threat to “expose” Gehlot.

The chief minister has often alleged that Pilot—the then deputy CM and Rajasthan Congress president—connived with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to defeat Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha election in June 2020 and, on failing, tried to pull down his government. This very accusation has now been turned on its head with Gudha’s as-yet unsubstantiated allegations. On July 24, he reached the assembly holding a ‘red diary’ that he claimed belonged to Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation chairman Dharmendra Rathore, a Gehlot loyalist. He alleged it contained details of financial transactions worth Rs 500 crore, including that of the Rajasthan government trying to buy MLAs to make them vote for Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls, thus accusing the CM of political horse-trading.