After months of bickering and bitter exchanges, the Congress high command on Monday managed to make both Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Sachin Pilot sit together but could not announce a peace formula despite claiming that both of them have “unitedly and unanimously” agreed to a “proposal”. After marathon meetings Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi had with Gehlot and Pilot – separately as well as together – AICC general secretary in charge of organisation K C Venugopal announced that both the leaders have agreed “to go together” and fight the upcoming Assembly elections unitedly. Kharge, Gandhi, Venugopal and AICC in charge of Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa met Gehlot first. The discussion went on for nearly two hours. Pilot reached Kharge's 10, Rajaji Marg residence two hours later – around 8 pm – and the discussions continued for two more hours. The leaders emerged shortly after 10 pm and spoke to the media but did not reveal much despite claiming that there was an agreement. “In view of the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly election, Congress president (Kharge) and Rahul Gandhi had a detailed four-hour-long discussion with Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot. In this discussion, we have decided to fight the election unitedly. Both of them are in agreement that the Congress party has to go together and definitely we will win elections in Rajasthan. It is very clear that Rajasthan is going to be a strong state for the Congress party. We are going to win. Therefore, both the leaders unitedly and unanimously agreed to the proposal…,” Venugopal said. Gehlot and Pilot stood on either side but did not speak. Asked what the proposal was, Venugopal merely said: “Both of them have left it to the high command. The high command will take the decision. Don’t worry about that. We decided that both the leaders have agreed to go together and it will be a joint fight against the BJP and we will win the state.” That the high command could not announce details of the peace formula signal that there are still points of disagreement. The party also released photographs of the meeting where all six – Kharge, Gandhi, Gehlot, Pilot, Venugopal and Randhawa – were sitting together in an attempt to show an united face. Hours before the meeting, Gehlot stirred the pot, saying there is no tradition in the Congress to offer any position to any leader or worker to pacify him created a stir. Some party leaders argued that both Gehlot and Pilot have taken their tussle too far and a climb down would require a face-saving formula for both. But Gehlot’s remark was read as an attempt to derail any possible peace formula from the high command to placate Pilot, who had been targeting the Chief Minister, accusing his government of not taking any action in alleged corruption cases against the previous Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government. Talking to reporters, Gehlot said there is no such tradition in the party to offer posts to any leader in order to pacify him. “I have not heard such a thing before…there is no such tradition in the Congress where any leader demands something and the party high command offers to give that position. We have not heard of such a formula ever,” he said when asked about reports of a formula being worked out to placate Pilot. A talk in the party circles had been that Pilot could be made the state Congress president again. Rubbishing such reports, Gehlot said that it is only the creation of the media and some leaders may be getting such stories planted. “The high command is strong even today. Such a situation has not come when it offers any leader a post of his choice to pacify him. Such a thing has not happened before and will not happen in the future. The Congress party and the high command is very strong and no leader or worker has the courage to demand any position. It does not happen like that,” Gehlot said. The meeting comes days after Pilot took out a five-day yatra from Ajmer to Jaipur demanding a high-level inquiry into alleged corruption cases against the Raje government, disbanding of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission and its reconstitution backed by a new law and compensation for “lakhs of students”, who have suffered economically due to question paper leaks. In fact, he had given a 15-day ultimatum to the Gehlot government to act on his demands.
