Pilot gives Cong workshopa miss; Randhawa warns ‘nobody is above party’

Jaipur: Former deputy CM Sachin Pilot stayed away from a workshop held for Congress functionaries in Jaipur Wednesday, prompting the party's state in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to remind everyone of the organisation's stern policy against indiscipline, although the leadership has yet to act on Pilot's latest actions undermining the Ashok Gehlot government.
"I have to say clearly that whoever works against Congress, I would recommend disciplinary action against them. No matter how big a man he is. If anybody has any misconception, remove it. Nobody is above the party. Whoever has become a leader, it's because of the party, not the other way around," Randhawa warned without taking Pilot's name.
"I have not come just like that from Punjab. I have come here to bring back the Congress government in Rajasthan," he said, asking Congress workers to boycott those leaders and workers who oppose the party. He called upon party workers to take a pledge to maintain discipline.
Pilot had failed to attend a one-to-one meeting of Congress MLAs with Randhawa this Monday. That had followed his day-long protest "fast" in Jaipur last week to mount pressure on CM Gehlot's government to start an investigation into alleged corruption cases when BJP was in office from 2013 to 2018 with Vasundhara Raje as CM.
At the workshop, Randhawa praised Gehlot: "The CM is a man with a soft heart. I told him to be tough." PCC president Govind Singh Dotasra set the tone, saying the party workers are capable of taking the "smoke" out of BJP, an expression used by Pilot to target the Gehlot government.
"When I protest, I leave my opponents blowing smoke (dhuan nikaal deta hun)," Pilot had said in Jhunjhunu district this Monday. Gehlot expressed confidence that Congress would emerge victorious in the assembly elections due later this year. "We have done a survey, and the results are clear. Congress is winning with a clear majority," the CM said.
Dotasra said Randhawa had come for the workshop with support of powers from Delhi. "The party is watching everyone's work. Those who work will be rewarded. From legislators to ground-level workers, active participation is expected from all at the (upcoming) inflation relief camps," he said.