Team News Riveting
New Delhi, September 24
After “resolving” the Punjab predicaments, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have now shifted their attention to Rajasthan.
The party is struggling to keep its house in order in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh also where it has been in power. The Gandhi siblings had found a solution in Punjab by replacing Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to satisfy Najyot Sidhu, now they are exploring one for Rajasthan. Chhattisgarh reportedly is in waiting.
On Friday, they met former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot in attempts to placate him over reported non fulfilment of promises the leadership had made when he returned to the party after rebelling in 2020. It had been 13 months now since the Congress formed a committee to address intense factionalism in its Rajasthan unit.
This was the second meeting of Pilot with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra within a week. Sources in the Congress said that Pilot had mounted serious pressure on leadership to accommodate his supporters in the proposed cabinet reshuffle. The reshuffle has been postponed for now though Congress leaders cited Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s ill health for the same.
Sources said the smooth transfer of power in Punjab had encouraged Rahul and Priyanka to take stringent action in the interest of organisation. They are working out a plan to fix the Rajasthan issue at the earliest as Pilot is learnt to have made it clear that he was expecting a role in Rajasthan and not in the AICC.
For now, Chhattisgarh seems to be waiting. But the simmering differences between Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Health Minister T S Singh Deo is finding no truce.
The latest in the series was a resolution passed by the Bilaspur Congress unit headed by Baghel’s supporters against Singh Deo supporter MLA Shailesh Pandey seeking his expulsion from the party. His charge; Pandey opposed police action against a Congress worker also affiliated to the Singh Deo camp.
