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Congress took his comments as an affront because he passed over a request to avoid saying or doing anything that could embarrass the party ahead of Wednesday’s assembly elections in Karnataka. Pilot also announced a five-day, 125km Jan Sangharsh Padayatra from Ajmer to Jaipur on May 11 to highlight corruption.
His remarks were seen as a comeback after Gehlot said at a programme in Dholpur last Sunday that he survived the 2020 revolt by several Congress MLAs because BJP’s Raje and Kailash Meghwal refused to support “the conspiracy to topple an elected government”.
Gehlot’s remarks were directed towards Pilot, without naming him as the rebellion centred on a call to elevate the deputy chief minister to the top job.
Pilot denied Gehlot’s charges that the “rebel” MLAs took money from BJP in their bid to overthrow him. “After listening to the chief minister’s speech in Dholpur, it seems his leader is not Sonia Gandhi, but Vasundhara Raje Scindia,” Pilot told reporters.
Congress sources said Pilot’s defiance of the party’s plea to avoid public outbursts before the Karnataka polls would be looked into. Pilot has been repeatedly challenging the party and some action could be taken to “send him a serious message”, sources said.
AICC state in-charge Sukhjinder Randhawa or spokesman Jairam Ramesh will issue a statement after voting ends in Karnataka.
Pilot had been keeping away from Congress functions lately and the 45-year-old held a daylong protest “fast” in Jaipur on April 10 to mount pressure on the Gehlot government to start an investigation into alleged corruption cases when BJP was in office from 2013 to 2018 with Raje as chief minister.
Sources said Pilot complained to the Congress leadership after Gehlot lashed out at party MLAs tied to the 2020 rebellion. He has asked the leadership to chastise the chief minister in public and ask him to exercise restraint.
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