India / Sachin Pilot, Ashok Gehlot meet for 1st time since Rajasthan crisis, shake hands

Jaipur: The Rajasthan unit of the Congress party is meeting at chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s residence in Jaipur on Thursday ahead of the 200-member state assembly session slated to begin tomorrow. According to party leaders, former deputy CM Sachin Pilot and other dissidents MLAs are attending the crucial Congress Legislature Party meeting.

A senior leader on condition of anonymity said that the there was no plan to call a CLP meet before the assembly session commenced, but looking at the changed political scenario with the return of dissident MLAs to the fold, the meeting was called on Thursday evening, hours before the assembly session is scheduled to begin on Friday.

“Legislative assembly is beginning on August 14, I hope that during the session, we will be able to openly discuss the situation of coronavirus crisis in the state and the financial conditions created after the lockdown. I am sure, there will be support from the ruling as well as opposition sides in providing good governance and this will give new confidence to the people in the state” the Rajasthan chief minister had tweeted earlier.

After nearly a month-long political turmoil, which seems to be heading towards a truce now, Gehlot on Wednesday said that it is natural for the MLAs to be upset, and the “friends” who had left have now come back.

He also stressed that whatever was the “misunderstanding” in the Congress party, should be “forgiven and forgotten” if the leaders were to move forward. He repeated the mantra for the second time on Thursday in an attempt to bury the political crisis, which had threatened to topple his government in the state. Gehlot, had been locked in a bitter power struggle with his erstwhile deputy Sachin Pilot for several weeks now.

“Whatever misunderstanding occurred in the party in the last one month, we need to forgive and forget in the interest of the country, the state, the people and in the interest of democracy,” Gehlot said in a tweet.

The Congress crisis in Rajasthan ended with the intervention of the party top brass, chief Sonia Gandhi, senior leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who met rebel leader Sachin Pilot earlier this week.

Pilot had openly rebelled against Gehlot last month along with 18 other Congress MLAs. He was then sacked as deputy chief minister and the party’s Rajasthan unit chief.

Earlier, the Rajasthan chief minister had also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to poach Congress legislators, in a bid to destabilize his government.