Sachin Pilot skips key Congress meet in Jaipur, draws party rebuke

JAIPUR: Former Rajasthan deputy CM Sachin Pilot stayed away from a workshop held for Congress functionaries in Jaipur on 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.
Pilot didn't attend a one-to-one meeting of Congress MLAs with Randhawa this Monday. That followed his daylong 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. Randhawa said Pilot should have raised his demand in the assembly. "There is no bigger platform than the assembly...The CM had to answer," he said. The Congress in-charge asked party workers to boycott members opposing the organisation, and take a pledge to maintain discipline. The 45-year-old Pilot had been firing salvos at Gehlot, 71, since the party's high command picked his rival for the CM's post after Congress won the assembly polls in 2018. The Congress central leadership had asked him to reconsider his stand and even termed his move "anti-party activity".