UNEASY PACT

Congress needs to develop the tenuous truce between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot into a working relationship

- SONI MISHRA

It was after many months that Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot appeared in the same frame. Following a marathon four hour meeting on May 29 at the residence of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi, the Rajasthan chief minister and his bête noire walked to the gate for a joint photo op in front of the media. The last time they were seen together was during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, when they had called a temporary truce while the walkathon passed through Rajasthan.

They stood, smiling awkwardly on either side of party general secretary in charge of organisation K.C. Venugopal, who declared that the duo had unanimously agreed to the proposal by the party high command that they should fight the assembly elections as a team. “Both of them are in agreement that the Congress party has to go together, and definitely we will win elections in Rajasthan,” Venugopal said.

The party’s keenness to project a picture of unity ahead of the assembly elections in the state was evident. The meeting happened in the backdrop of Pilot’s one-day hunger strike on April 11 and then a five-day padyatra that began on May 11 to highlight the Gehlot government’s alleged inaction on issues of corruption in the Vasundhara Raje government and paper leak in recruitment exams. It was his way of signalling that the tussle between him and Gehlot had entered the end game. There was intense speculation whether Pilot would follow this up with a big announcement on June 11, the death anniversary of his father, Rajesh Pilot.