Sachin Pilot to form own party? Buzz grows amid his ‘padyatra’

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, May 11

Since he went public with accusations that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot led Congress government was going soft on the Vasundhara Raje term’s corruption, buzz has been growing around whether Congress leader Sachin Pilot was contemplating forming his own party in Rajasthan.

Political circles are rife with talk that the former deputy CM and a Gehlot bete noire in Congress Party’s internal politics could well be testing waters with the five-day padyatra against corruption which he launched from Ajmer today.

Regional outfits have held a sway in state politics just as these have increasingly grown in electoral stature nationally.

A section of BJP leaders do not rule out a Pilot led party, saying the leader could influence a sizablenumber of seats specially Ajmer, Bahadurgarh belt.

The importance of regional parties cannot be ruled out,say sources.

In the 2008 state polls when the Congress with 92 seats fell short of the majority in a 200 member House, six BSP legislators crossed over and backed it.

If Pilot was to float an outfit, he could hold his own, having gone far enough in his defiance of Congress leadership to not wash party’slinen in public.

Already regional parties—BSP, INLD, National People’s Party, CMP, RLP—influence about 30 seats in Rajasthan. Rajasthan’s history too bears testimony to space for regional forces such as Janata Party, Janata Dal, Swatantra Party, Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Ram Rajya Parishad.

Rajasthan goes to polls later this year. Rajasthan is one of the three states (others being Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh) which Congress rules on its own.