India / Sad to see Sachin Pilot too being sidelined and persecuted: Scindia

New Delhi: Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose defection to the BJP earlier this year contributed to the Congress collapse in Madhya Pradesh, taunted his former party as it faced a rerun in Rajasthan with Sachin Pilot seen to attempt a split.

"Sad to see my erstwhile colleague Sachin Pilot too, being sidelined and persecuted by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Shows that talent and capability find little credence in the Congress," Jyotiraditya Scindia tweeted.

Sachin Pilot, the deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan, is in Delhi with a few MLAs loyal to him amid speculation that he is in talks with the BJP to bring down the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government.

In doing so, Sachin Pilot would follow the playbook of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who made his move in March after nursing for over a year his resentment with the Congress leadership. He is now a Rajya Sabha member of the BJP.

In 2018, after the Congress won in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, both Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot settled for less than what they wanted after then Congress president Rahul Gandhi's intervention; in Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath became Chief Minister and Jyotiraditya Scindia was compensated with a job in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 national election. In Rajasthan, veteran Ashok Gehlot took the top post and Sachin Pilot became his deputy, retaining the post of Congress chief in the state.

In March, Mr Scindia quit the Congress, his party of 19 years, saying he felt sidelined and short-changed. He took with him 22 MLAs, enough to bring the Congress government crashing down.

In the days before he joined the BJP, Mr Scindia went virtually incommunicado. He later said his party bosses had denied him a hearing for nearly a year.

Around the same time, Sachin Pilot was believed to have been in talks with the BJP. Reports that he intended to pull off a similar manoeuvre peaked during the Rajya Sabha election, when Ashok Gehlot accused the BJP of trying to lure his MLAs with money.

The festering Pilot-Gehlot dispute escalated again when the Deputy Chief Minister received summons from the Special Operations Group investigating the alleged poaching of MLAs. The Chief Minister received a letter to appear for questioning too, but it was seen as eyewash as the Special Operation Group reports to him.

A furious Mr Pilot then left for Delhi with some MLAs, reviving rumours that the Congress is on the verge of collapse in Rajasthan.