Don’t take PM Modi’s praise for Ashok Gehlot lightly, Sachin Pilot warns Congress leadership

Tribune News Service

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, November 2

The “mutual admiration” shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at a public event has led to a new controversy in the Congress, with former Deputy CM and Gehlot’s bête noire Sachin Pilot smelling a rat.

While asserting that it was time to end the indecision on the Rajasthan leadership issue, Pilot cautioned that PM Modi’s praise for Gehlot should not be taken lightly.

Maintain discipline

AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal has refrained leaders from giving statements. We, too, want all leaders to maintain discipline. Ashok Gehlot, Rajasthan CM

Azad script?

It is an interesting development and should not be taken lightly as we know what happened after Modi praised Ghulam Nabi Azad in Parliament. —Sachin Pilot, Rajasthan Ex-Dy CM

“It is an interesting development and should not be taken lightly as we know what happened after Modi praised Ghulam Nabi Azad in Parliament,” he said. In August, Azad had quit the Congress, saying the party had been “comprehensively destroyed”.

Gehlot, for his part, asked party leaders to “maintain discipline” and refrain from making political statements. “AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal has refrained leaders from giving statements. We, too, want all leaders to maintain discipline,” Gehlot told the media in Alwar today.

“The party’s focus should be on retaining power in Rajasthan. The state government has provided people with good governance and introduced several schemes — an unprecedented development,” the CM said.

PM Modi had praised Gehlot at the “Mangarh Dham Ki Gaurav Gatha” event in Rajasthan on Tuesday, saying that he was a senior among the CMs. The PM was talking of the time when he was the Gujarat CM.

Pilot, meanwhile, said the new Congress top brass must settle the Rajasthan leadership issue. Breaking his silence on the abandoned CLP meeting on September 25, he said the AICC considered the parallel meeting by MLAs as an act of indiscipline. “It is important that rules and discipline are applied to all equally. I hope that new Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will make a decision soon,” Pilot added.

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