Sachin cites win in K'taka, asks Raj govt to act on graft

Press Trust of India

Jaipur: Dissident Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Monday cited his party's victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls to push for action by the Ashok Gehlot government over alleged corruption during the previous BJP rule in Rajasthan.

As the assembly polls approach in Rajasthan, the former deputy chief minister mounted pressure on Chief Minister Gehlot and the party's top leadership with a five-day yatra which ended Monday with a big rally in Jaipur. In an effort to corner Gehlot, Pilot has been demanding action over accusations of corruption made by the Congress ahead of the Rajasthan polls in 2018.

In an interview to PTI before the Jaipur rally, he compared the situation now in Karnataka, where the Congress has swept the assembly polls, with that in Rajasthan in 2018. “We levelled allegations of corruption against the BJP government in Karnataka. The Congress has got a mandate there and if no action against corruption by the (BJP's) Bommai government is taken, will people listen to us after five years?” he said.

“This is the situation here in Rajasthan. So I want action taken on this,” he added. Pilot's argument is that the Congress levelled corruption charges against the BJP government of Vasundhara Raje ahead of the 2018 elections, and people expected it to act on the issue once it came to power. He asked how he could be wrong in talking about corruption that took place during the term of the previous BJP government in the state.

Pilot, who is locked in a leadership tussle with Gehlot in the state, said he will continue to raise the issue in the future as well. At the rally later, he was more categorical. He threatened to launch a major agitation if his demands are not met by the month-end. About 15 Congress MLAs shared the dais with him in the show of strength.

In 2018 the party's top leadership faced in Rajasthan a dilemma of the kind it encounters in Karnataka where it is forced to pick between two CM aspirants – D K Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah. The party had then gone with Gehlot, disappointing Pilot who claimed to have led the Congress to victory as the president of the state unit.