From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot is at last preparing to split the Congress in his long-drawn battle royal with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for over two years and he is likely to form a new regional party the next Sunday on the death ceremony of his father Rajesh Pilot on June 11.
He may make the announcement of the new party at a rally either in Dausa or in Jaipur. He has been avoiding interviews and keeping his cards close to his chest while meeting the leaders for a formal launch of the new party. He has told his supporters that no time is left since the Assembly elections are knocking the state this year end.
The Rajasthan Election Commission has registered two new parties — Pragtisheel Congress and Rajasthan Jan Sangharsh Party. Pilot may pick up one of the names registered by his suppprters.
The most crucial will be the political development of how many Congress MLAs will walk out and if at all it could ffect the stability of the Gehlot government. Unlike in July 2020 when Pilot had claimed the support of 30 MLAs and threatened to walk out of the Congress. The Chief Minister had then gone on to win support of 125 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and Pilot had the support of 19 rebels.
Pilot is growing restless as the party high command did not respond to his demands and wanted him and Gehlot to contest unitedly. On April 11, Pilot had gone on a day’s fast against the alleged corruption during the previous BJP government lf Vasundhara Raje and a probe into the financial irregularities and mney laundering by former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.
Exactly a month later on May 11, he embarked on a 125-km long padyatra from Ajmer to Jaipur to highlight corruption issues and paper leaks in the state. He gave a 15-day deadline to Gehlot to move on the corruption cases against Raje or he would launch a state-wide agitation.
However, the Congress has been maintaining that the party is supreme and will fight the Rajasthan Assembly polls unitedly to emerge victorious. The assertion came a day after Sachin Pilot refused to budge from his demands from the Ashok Gehlot government to act against corruption.
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