Stop accepting BJP ‘hospitality’, come back, Surjewala tells Pilot

Jaipur, July 15

Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said on Wednesday if dissident leader Sachin Pilot is not joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, he should stop accepting that party’s ”hospitality” in Haryana.

The reference was to reports that MLAs close to the rebel leaders are holed up in hotels in Gurugram in Haryana, where the BJP is in power.

He also repeated the party’s appeal to Pilot, asking him to “come back to the family”.

“I have seen Pilot’s statement in the media that he will not join the BJP. If you do not want to go to the BJP, stop accepting the hospitality of the BJP immediately,” he said.

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He told reporters that Pilot should free the Congress MLAs who are staying in two luxury hotels and under the security of the Haryana police.

Surjewala said the party leadership spoke to Pilot several times but he and the other Congress MLAs did not come to attend the Congress Legislature Party meetings.

Pilot was sacked Tuesday as Rajasthan’s deputy chief minister and the president of the state unit of the Congress. PTI