New Delhi: Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot Wednesday said he has no personal animosity against senior party colleague Ashok Gehlot and asserted that they, along with other party leaders in Rajasthan, have to fight unitedly to take on the BJP double engine in the 2028 Assembly polls.
In an interview with PTI Videos, Pilot also said Gehlot is an elder and therefore, the former Rajasthan chief minister has more latitude to say things and that is absolutely fine.
Asked whether he was promised the chief ministerial post in Rajasthan by the party but was not given, Pilot said, There are no promises in politics. You are wrong that they promised something. It’s all circumstantial. It’s all situational. I have been a member of Parliament, I have been a Union minister, I am an MLA today, I was deputy chief minister. Depending on where I am most usable for the party, I do whatever they ask me to.
I was asked to campaign in Kerala, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, wherever they ask me to campaign and I enjoy it and I try and do the best I can with the assignment I am given, the former Union minister said.
On Gehlot’s comments a few months ago targeting him, Pilot said, There is nothing like that. He is a very senior person in the party and I have worked closely with him. You may have a difference of opinion on certain issues, it doesn’t mean there is personal animosity, and I have never carried personal animosity against anybody. I speak for him when I say this.
He is an elder, so maybe he has more latitude to say things. That is absolutely fine, Pilot added.
I believe you should not say things that you would not want to hear about yourself, he said.
The former Rajasthan deputy chief minister stressed that he has nothing against Gehlot and they have worked closely now.
We are in opposition. For the Congress to win in Rajasthan in 2028 December, we all have to work together. We are taking on the double engine — government of India and government of Rajasthan and they are misusing agencies and police like never before. So to fight that force we all have to fight unitedly. Not just him and me but the entire party leadership in Rajasthan, he said.
On ambition and willingness to be chief minister, Pilot said the party has to win first and get a majority.
‘Uske baad hoga na’, who becomes mantri, CM etc. But, you know, we have to win different states, before the Lok Sabha polls. And there are many state elections coming up in 2027-28. If we are able to win those states then the path to win the Lok Sabha polls becomes much easier, he said.
In June, Gehlot had raked up Pilot’s 2020 rebellion against him and said that the September 2022 incident, when a legislature party meeting could not be held, was not a revolt against the Congress high command but a disagreement among the MLAs over Pilot’s possible elevation as the chief minister.
A Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting was called in Jaipur September 25, 2022, to discuss the leadership of the Rajasthan government if Gehlot were to be elected president of the party, but the party MLAs close to Gehlot did not attend the meeting and opposed any move to make Pilot the chief minister.
Pilot, however, had not reacted to Gehlot’s remarks critical of him.
Also, a video of friendly banter between Pilot and Gehlot went viral last week in which the latter is seen joking that Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, once Pilot’s in-charge in Rajasthan, now had Pilot as his in-charge in Punjab.
Pilot promptly retorted, You are in charge of all of us.
Gehlot took the banter further, saying, I am the permanent in-charge.
In the past, Pilot and Gehlot have shared strained ties. The matter seemed to have been resolved over the last few years with Pilot going on record twice to assert that he believes in forgiving and forgetting, as asked by the party high command.
Burying the hatchet with Gehlot, Pilot had also said that he will 100 per cent campaign for his senior colleague’s son Vaibhav Gehlot, who was contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Jalore.
After the September 2022 developments, Pilot became general secretary of the party and campaigned in states such as Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and Kerala.
He was the senior observer for Kerala where the Congress formed the government recently with V D Satheesan as the chief minister.